A complex process - transforming scientific research into regulatory rules for environmental protection

The protection of isolated wetlands from consumptive use withdrawals has been a policy in the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) for over 15 years. A guideline for protecting isolated wetlands was established in the mid-1980's for the consumptive water use permitting program administered by the SFWMD. The guideline specifies groundwater drawdown criteria associated with well field pumpage. In 1994, the SFWMD convened a panel of wetland scientists to review the existing groundwater drawdown criteria. The panel concluded there was insufficient information to determine if the criteria were either too restrictive or insufficient in protecting wetlands. The panel recommended that the SFWMD conduct research to answer related questions. Since that time, staff at the SFWMD have developed a research plan, selected 38 isolated wetland monitoring sites in seven study areas, collected over four years of data, and developed an integrated surface water and groundwater simulation model. However, the staff at the SFWMD has had difficulties in transforming the research results into regulatory rules. The nature of an isolated wetland is quite complicated. Its setting changes significantly from time to time depending on the variation of rainfall, hydro-geological conditions, and human activities. A regulatory rule requires simple and more easily measurable criteria. The regulatory staff need simple tools to evaluate many permit applications within a limited time frame. The tools used in the research process are often complicated and time consuming. This paper describes the wetland research, and the difficulties of transforming research results into regulatory rules. (author)