The Clean Water Act requires that the surface waters of each state be classified according to designated uses. Florida has five classes with associated designated uses, which are arranged in order of degree of protection required. This dataset contains Class I and II surface water classification boundaries.
A note about data scale:
Scale is an important factor in data usage. Certain scale datasets are not suitable for some project, analysis, or modeling purposes. Please be sure you are using the best available data.
1:24000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the county level. 1:24000 data should NOT be used for high accuracy base mapping such as property parcel boundaries. 1:100000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the multi-county or regional level. 1:125000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the regional or state level or larger.
Vector datasets with no defined scale or accuracy should be considered suspect. Make sure you are familiar with your data before using it for projects or analysis. Every effort has been made to supply the user with data documentation. For additional information, see the References section and the Data Source Contact section of this documentation. For more information regarding scale and accuracy, see our webpage at: <http://geoplan.ufl.edu/education.html>
Surface Water Classifications <http://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/wqssp/classes.htm>
The Lambert Equal Area projection was projected to Albers Conformal Area then exported using ARC/INFO v. 6.1.1 for VMS on a VAX. The export file was ftp'd to a DEC Alpha Unix system running ARC/INFO v. 6.1.2 then imported and inserted into the county library.
(1) The original file name was SURF_WATER_CLASS_ BOUND_AREAS.shp was changed to swc_jul05.shp (2) Projected data to FGDL Albers. (3) Deleted the following fields: AREA and PERIMETER (4) Changed field DESCRIPTIO to DESCRIPT. (5) Added the FGDLAQDATE field.
Class I Potable Water Supplies Fourteen general areas throughout the state including: impoundments and associated tributaries, certain lakes, rivers, or portions of rivers, used as a drinking water supply.
Class II Shellfish Propagation or Harvesting Generally coastal waters where commercial shellfish harvesting occurs.
Class III Recreation, Propagation and Maintenance of a Healthy, Well-Balanced Population of Fish and Wildlife The surface waters of the state are Class III unless described in rule 62-302.40 F.A.C.
Class IV Agricultural Water Supplies Generally located in agriculture areas around Lake Okeechobee.
Class V Navigation, Utility and Industrial Use. Currently, there aren't any class V bodies of water. The Fenholloway River was reclassified as Class III in 1998
To protect these present and future most beneficial uses of the waters, water quality criteria have been established for each classification. While some of these are intended to protect aquatic life, others are designed to protect human health. The listed criteria are more protective of both aquatic life and human health, and are located in rules 62-302.500 and 62-302.530 of the Florida Administrative Code. Water quality standards also include general provisions for pollutants which are not specifically listed.