Lower Flint-Ochlocknee Implementation Assessment
Lower Flint-Ochlockonee: Implementation Assessment
Lower Flint-Ochlockonee Implementation Assessment
The Implementation Assessment focuses on projects that have leveraged state and federal funding sources to implement water projects in the region from 2020-2025. The objectives are to provide the councils, GAEPD, and stakeholders with information about:
- Water-related projects in their regions that support implementation of their management practices
- Progress in implementing and supporting the regional water planning process
- Implementation highlights
- Council priorities for the next plan update
The report has five sections. The Introduction provides an overview of regional water planning, the specific planning region, and how regional water plans are used. The Water Related Projects section describes the projects in the region via a map, text description, and tables of projects by the funding source. In this section, each project is categorized based on the impact on water conservation, water supply, wastewater, or water quality and is tagged with specific management practices from Section 6 of the regional water plan where possible. The Implementation Highlight describes an innovative project or projects in the region that addresses a water-related challenge in their region. The Updates to Water Resource Assessments describes planned updates by GAEPD to surface and ground water resource models for the state that are used to inform council members about water resource conditions. The final section, Looking Ahead, discusses initial priorities identified by the Council for the 2028 revision of the regional water plan.
Water Planning in the Lower Flint-Ochlockonee Region
The Lower Flint-Ochlockonee region includes fourteen counties and portions of six major river basins, listed from west to east: Chattahoochee, Flint, Apalachicola, Ochlockonee, Aucilla, and Suwannee. The Lower Flint-Ochlockonee Regional Water Council includes members from across this region and who represent different backgrounds and perspectives on water use and management in the region. The Council was established in 2008, and the first regional water plan was adopted in 2011 and subsequently, updated plans were adopted in 2017 and 2023. The review and revision process for the next plan update began in 2026, and the revised plan will be submitted to GAEPD for review in June 2028.