Water Quality - Executive Summary

Florida’s surface waters are an extraordinary natural resource that includes lakes, rivers, streams, bays, and estuaries. The increasing economic development of our coastal area is due to the natural beauty of these estuaries. Our waters are used for recreation, commercial and recreational fishing, and shellfish harvesting to name a few. They are an invaluable source as a natural habitat for most of Florida’s native flora and fauna.

Due in part to the constant changes to Florida’s environment through development, and in addition to our ever-growing population, these resources have become endangered and it has become necessary to monitor the health of our surface waters.  

The Volusia County Environmental Health Lab (VCEHL’s) surface water program is committed to continue identifying and documenting the conditions of our surface water resources as well as determining possible trends in water quality.
Our enormous amount of data is available to everyone through a comprehensive water quality information system. The data is stored in the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA’s) STORET (Storage and Retrieval) database. 

Based on the Water Quality Index (WQI), the trend analysis is only an indicator in determining the water quality. Indices have been developed to summarize multiple water quality monitoring parameters into a single numerical value.  This value represents a ‘grade’ or ‘score’ for a particular water body location and rates the water’s condition as either good, fair, or poor.

Forward thinking along with the progressive development of the entire infrastructure will be necessary in order to obtain effective solutions and protection against any further degradation of the fragile environment.  The impact and depravation that our future generations will have to endure is unimaginable.

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