2023 PROVISIONAL WATER QUALITY REPORT CARD

Dr. Marcus Beck,

Tampa Bay Estuary Program

Oct 6, 2023

RA FRAMEWORK

  • Each year, assess attainment of water quality thresholds
  • Annual reporting to FDEP, second year of 2022-2026 RA period
  • Today’s results include data through August

WATER QUALITY REPORT CARD

https://tbep-tech.github.io/wq-static/wq.pdf

Management

Regulatory

MANAGEMENT ACTIONS

  • Each bay segment assigned a management action

REGULATORY THRESHOLDS

  • Each bay segment evaluated by chlorophyll-a threshold

2023 MANAGEMENT RESULTS

Segment

Chl-a (ug/L)

Light Penetration (m-1)

2023

target

2023

target

OTB

7.7

8.5

0.76

0.83

HB

8.5

13.2

0.83

1.58

MTB

4.4

7.4

0.49

0.83

LTB

3.2

4.6

0.56

0.63

* Sep - Dec based on average from five years prior

MANAGEMENT OUTCOMES

* 2023 Sep - Dec based on average from five years prior

OLD TAMPA BAY DETAILS

REGULATORY OUTCOMES

* 2023 Aug - Dec based on average from five years prior

CONCLUSIONS

  • All segments provisionally meet management targets and regulatory thresholds in 2023 (through August)
  • Second year of 2022 - 2026 RA period
  • Need to assess assimilative capacity of OTB

Tampa Bay Nitrogen Management Consortium