Water Quality

Springs, rivers, and the aquifer beneath them.

How land use and policy affect Florida’s springs, rivers, and groundwater, and how planning can protect them.

A Short History of Water Quality

Water quality science began with tracing disease and grew into regulating everything from factory pipes to farm runoff.

Show the timelineHide the timeline 11 moments, 1854–2024
  1. Foundations
  2. 1854

    The Broad Street pump

    John Snow maps cholera deaths in London and traces them to a contaminated well, an early landmark of public health and spatial analysis.

  3. 1908

    Chlorinated drinking water

    Jersey City becomes the first U.S. city to disinfect its public water supply continuously with chlorine.

  4. Federal regulation
  5. 1969

    The Cuyahoga River fire

    A burning river in Ohio becomes a national symbol of water pollution.

  6. 1972

    Clean Water Act

    Congress requires permits for pollution discharged from pipes and sets the goal of fishable, swimmable waters.

  7. 1974

    Safe Drinking Water Act

    EPA gets the authority to set national standards for public drinking water.

  8. 1987

    Nonpoint source pollution

    Amendments to the Clean Water Act add a program for runoff from farms, lawns, and streets, now the leading cause of impaired waters.

  9. 1993

    The biosolids rule

    EPA's Part 503 rule sets national standards for applying treated sewage sludge to land.

  10. New challenges
  11. 1998

    Nutrient pollution

    Stephen Carpenter and colleagues show how nitrogen and phosphorus runoff drive algae blooms in lakes and rivers.

  12. 2014

    Flint and Toledo

    Lead contamination in Flint and an algae toxin in Toledo's water supply show how drinking water failures fall hardest on some communities.

  13. 2023

    Sackett v. EPA

    The Supreme Court narrows which wetlands the Clean Water Act protects.

  14. 2024

    PFAS limits

    EPA sets the first national drinking water limits for PFAS "forever chemicals." In 2025 it moves to roll back some of them.

In Florida

Florida sits on porous limestone, so what happens on the land can reach springs, rivers, and the aquifer most residents drink from. That makes land-use planning a water-quality decision.

  1. 1947

    Everglades National Park

    The park is established to protect part of the River of Grass.

  2. 1994

    Everglades Forever Act

    Florida sets phosphorus limits and builds treatment marshes to clean water flowing into the Everglades.

  3. 1999

    Watershed Restoration Act

    Florida begins setting pollution limits for impaired waters and later adopts basin plans, including one for Lake Okeechobee.

  4. 2000

    Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan

    The state and federal governments launch a decades-long plan to restore water flow through South Florida.

  5. 2016

    Springs and Aquifer Protection Act

    Outstanding Florida Springs get recovery plans to reduce pollution and over-pumping.

  6. 2021

    New biosolids rule

    Florida's updated biosolids rule takes effect, aimed at keeping phosphorus from biosolids out of waterways.

Key Readings

  • Carpenter, S. R., et al. (1998). Nonpoint pollution of surface waters with phosphorus and nitrogen. Ecological Applications, 8(3), 559–568.
  • Grunwald, M. (2006). The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise. Simon & Schuster.
  • Karr, J. R., & Dudley, D. R. (1981). Ecological perspective on water quality goals. Environmental Management, 5(1), 55–68.
  • Snow, J. (1855). On the Mode of Communication of Cholera (2nd ed.). John Churchill.