Throughout its 34 year history, a large portion of Broward County’s involvement in the North Fork New River has focused on water quality monitoring and improvements, including:

• Broward County Environmental Protection Department (BCEPD) has maintained a North Fork New River water quality testing site at Broward Boulevard since 1972. Data from this site documented the improvement in water quality once the Cities of Ft. Lauderdale and Plantation ceased discharging treated human sewage to the C-12 Canal and North Fork New River during the 1980s.  The site has also shown the river still has poor water quality when compared to other quarterly monitoring sites within Broward County.
• A specialized New River Study was performed from 1991 thru 1993 (Broward County Department of Natural Resource Protection, BCDNRP 1993a) and it documented the North Fork New River as having the poorest water quality within the New River system.
• During the mid 1990s, Broward County EPD’s Water Resources Division National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System permits with 24 municipalities, FDOT, and unincorporated Broward County http://www.broward.org/waterresources/wr_nondomestic.htm .
  
  This stormwater program is designed to identify urban non-point source pollution and abate sources   through Best Management Practices (BMPs) for industries and businesses that have a high potential of    releasing pollutants into the surface waters such as the North Fork New River.
• As part of a New River Restoration Plan (BCDNRP 1994b), a bi-weekly water quality testing program was conducted from 1998 thru 1999 at four sites along the river (Broward County Department of Planning and Environmental Protection, BCDPEP 1999).  Two electronic water quality testers were also placed in the study area to take measurements 24 hours a day for a year.  This project was funded by the state of Florida and Broward County to document the river’s background water quality conditions in order to request enhanced freshwater flow from western canals operated by the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD).
• As part of a New River Restoration Plan (BCDNRP 1994b), river sediments were sampled and tested in 1998 and found to have pollutants at levels of concern (BCDPEP 1999, note there are no water quality standards for sediments).  This data, in part, led to several sediment dredging projects funded by city, county, and state funds in from the late 1990s thru the 2003 to remove contaminated sediments and improve water flow in the waterway.
• To establish better freshwater flows from the SFWMD into the river, a pilot water quality project was performed from October to December 2001 to document any changes in water quality (BCDPEP 2002).  Monitoring for this project included weekly sampling for 8 weeks at five locations as well as the deployment of 4 electrical water quality instruments.  Water quality improvements were seen for most parameters and an extended freshwater flow project was planned.
• The following year (October 2002), an expanded freshwater flow project was implemented and lasted until March 2003 (Broward County Environmental Protection Department 2003).  Again, many water quality improvements were noted with the enhanced freshwater flows with bi-weekly water quality monitoring and electronic water quality observations (24 hour measurements).  Bacteria levels, though lowered some, still remained at levels of concern.
• Broward County EPD added a quarterly monitoring network sampling site in North Fork New River at Sistrunk Boulevard in 2004.
• Enhanced flows to the river were halted because of aquatic weed management concerns within the City of Lauderdale Lakes.  In addition, the canal from which freshwater was delivered to North Fork New River underwent major reconstruction to improve flow characteristics.  Once this construction is completed within likely within this fiscal year (i.e. October 2006), Broward County and the SFWMD plan to begin enhance freshwater flow deliveries to the river.  The Broward County quarterly monitoring sites will be used to document any changes to the waterway.
• The state of Florida Department of Environmental Protection has utilized Broward County’s quarterly monitoring data since 1997 to assess the North Fork New River as part of the Federal Clean Water Act’s Total Maximum Daily Load. Based on Broward County’s data, the waterway is slated for a TMDL based on its listing by the Florida Administrative Code’s (FAC 62-303) Impaired Water Rule. http://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/tmdl/
• Once the state FDEP’s list is approved by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the TMDL process will lead to cleaner waters for the North Fork New River thru a Basin Management Action Plan which will result in a reduction of pollution to the river.
• The South Florida Water Management District is funding a water quality improvement plan which will allow more rapid implementation of the BMAP once the TMDL is calculated by the FDEP, likely 2008 or 2009.  The TMDL calculation by the FDEP is needed to determine how to reduce pollution entering the river in order for the North Fork New River to meet water quality standards.
• Thus, the enhanced freshwater flows and the TMDL process will bring an improvement in the North Fork New River’s water quality over the next few years, starting with new releases of freshwater in 2006.
• The BCEPD will continue to provide quarterly water quality monitoring at Sistrunk and Broward Boulevards and likely will augment this effort once a BMAP is in place.

The following documents were cited above and data are available upon request.  Please contact Kevin Carter at 954-519-1477 or kcarter@broward.org if you have any questions about North Fork New River water quality.
Broward County (FL) Department of Natural Resource Protection (BCDNRP). 1993. New River Study: Final Report. Technical Report Series, TR 93-06. Ft. Lauderdale, FL.
Broward County (FL) Department of Natural Resource Protection (BCDNRP). 1994. New River Restoration Plan. Technical Report Series, TR 94-04. Ft. Lauderdale, FL.
http://www.broward.org/wti01300.pdf
Broward County Department of Planning and Environmental Protection (BCDPEP). 1999.  North Fork of the New River Restoration Projects: Final Report (submitted to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection). Ft. Lauderdale, FL.
Broward County Department of Planning and Environmental Protection (BCDPEP). 2002.  North Fork of the New River Restoration Projects: Operational Flow (OPFLOW) 2001  Study (submitted to the South Florida Water Management District). Ft. Lauderdale, FL.
Broward County Department of Planning and Environmental Protection (BCDPEP).  2003.  North Fork New River Operational Flow (OPFLOW) 2002 Study, Technical Report 03-07, October 2003. Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. http://www.broward.org/environment/moi01702.pdf.