|
|
-
Feather Sound Tidal Wetland Restoration
( 1 Article )
-
Tampa Bay Ecosystem Services Project
( 0 Articles )
EPA scientists are partnering with local governments, planning organizations, and citizen and business groups to identify and assess the ecosystem services in Tampa Bay. They will focus on how current and proposed population growth and development may impact ecosystem services.
Because the study of ecosystems falls into many different scientific disciplines, ranging from the microscopic scale to landscape ecology and atmospheric sciences, experts from many fields will participate in this study. The research objectives of the Tampa Bay study are to:
- Delineate and quantify ecosystem services provided by the Tampa Bay ecosystem
- Assess the likely changes in environmental stressors and land use patterns through 2050
- Model the relationships among stressors, ecosystem structure and functioning, and ecosystem services
- Place values on Tampa Bay's ecosystem services in terms of human well-being
- Model multiple future scenarios of different land-use changes and projected impactson ecosystem services and human well-being
- Develop a Web-based tool to characterize effects of land use changes on ecosystem services and human well-being
-
Hillsborough River BMAP Coordination
( 0 Articles )
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have determined that a number of Hillsborough County water bodies are not currently meeting state and federal water quality standards, and have designated those waters as “impaired” pursuant to Section 303(d) of the Federal Clean Water Act. The State Legislature, through the Florida Watershed Restoration Act (Section 403.067 Florida Statutes), has identified a process for the development and implementation of Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) in order to reduce pollutant loading to impaired waters and allow them to meet applicable water quality standards. DEP has identified a process for developing Basin Management Action Plans (BMAPs) in order to achieve TMDLs.
TBEP, EPCHC, Hillsborough County (Public Works, Water, and Planning & Growth Management Departments) and the City of Tampa developed and initiated a process in 2005 with DEP as a Hillsborough County Watershed Management Initiative (WMI), which will take a proactive approach to developing BMAPs for impaired waters within Hillsborough County. The process was facilitated by TBEP and its DEP-funded consultant to help develop six BMAPs that address fecal coliform impairments in the Hillsborough River Basin. The BMAP Work Group has also developed a “decision support tool” to help define management responses to human health risks in these waterbodies. The BMAP Work Group submitted their final draft document in 2008, and FDEP approved the final Hillsborough River Basin Fecal Coliform BMAP in fall 2009.
TBEP, EPCHC, Hillsborough County (Public Works, Water, and Planning & Growth Management Departments) and the City of Tampa developed and initiated a process in 2005 with DEP as a Hillsborough County Watershed Management Initiative (WMI), which will take a proactive approach to developing BMAPs for impaired waters within Hillsborough County. The process was facilitated by TBEP and its DEP-funded consultant to help develop six BMAPs that address fecal coliform impairments in the Hillsborough River Basin. A Draft BMAP for these waterbodies was submitted to DEP in June 2007. The BMAP Work Group has also developed a “decision support tool” to help define management responses to human health risks in these waterbodies.
|
TBEP Special Projects
