Water management district seeks $22.5 million for watershed grants; board debates role in policy advocacy

Daryl Boudreaux of the Northwest Florida Water Management District outlined a legislative budget request to fund a Watersheds Partnership Program and urged regional partners to review draft subbasin priorities.

"What we are doing is working with estuary programs. We're going to be meeting with each county," Boudreaux said, describing planned outreach and public meetings to choose priority subbasins for targeted projects.

The district is proposing a one-time legislative budget request of $22,500,000 to seed a grant program and $2,500,000 to fund administration and management of that program. Boudreaux said the intent is to identify prioritized subbasins within each major watershed and use objective metrics across three focus areas — water quality, water supply and habitat restoration — to guide a call for projects. He estimated that, if the request is funded and spread across seven priority subwatersheds, the initial round would yield roughly $3 million per watershed.

The pro…