Low-Impact Development Case Study: Florida

Words: 1238
Pages: 5

Evandro Queiroz
10.29.2014
Letter of Intent

Low-Impact Development Case Study
The state that I chose was Florida. I chose it because they are a state with many water issues since it tends to rain practically everyday and since they have a higher population than can be supported by their current water system. According to an article by St. Johns River Water Management District, the biggest problem is Florida is that due to the high volume of rain, much of the untreated stormwater runoff goes straight into rivers, lakes and streams. They also state that due to this untreated stormwater runoff, about 80 to 95 percent of heavy metals such as copper, lead and cadmium end up in Florida’s waters. Not only does this contribute to the pollution problem, which is a huge one, Florida will soon lack an adequate system that can support its residents with enough clean water for all of their daily needs. Currently, in the 18 counties the article address, 1.19 billions gallons of freshwater is used per day. Half of that is solely used by the public, which makes it the largest water use category in the district as stated by St. Johns River Water Management District.
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For example, the district which this article mainly discusses has developed a program that increases water efficiency in new homes called Florida Water Starsm. This program intends to increase water efficiency both indoors and outdoors by providing a criteria where outdoor water use would be reduced by 40 percent and indoor use by 20 percent. This program could help save 47.5 million gallons of water every year. If this program was put in place through the state of Florida it would save more 50 million gallons of water annually and it would reduce the amount of pollution going into rivers, lakes and streams, and especially the