|DEP Home||About DEP||Programs||Contact||Site Map||Search|
Organization and Establishment of the Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program (SWAMP)
The federal Clean Water Act , the State’s 1983 Water Quality Assurance Act (Section 373.026, F.S.), Section 403.061 F.S., and State Water Policy (Section 62-40.540, F.A.C.) provide DEP with water quality monitoring, assessment, and data management responsibilities and authorities. The Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program (SWAMP) is an effort started in 1991 to revitalize monitoring programs at DEP to better address the federal and state water quality management and assessment requirements. SWAMP is an interagency collaborative effort to coordinate Florida’s monitoring efforts. It is also DEP’s primary surface water quality monitoring program and central repository for surface water quality data.
It was not designed to identify causes of pollution, monitor compliance of point sources, or allow a thorough detailed understanding of an ecosystem, but rather to screen water bodies to provide a broad assessment of water quality. Information generated from this program would be used to develop total maximum daily loads (TMDLs), identify water bodies for more detailed studies, and potentially identify water bodies for restoration and rehabilitation.
overall program goal of SWAMP is to provide information
to the public, elected officials, and DEP mangers about
the health of Florida's water bodies, whether they meet
standards and criteria, and the occurrence of changes in
quality in a technically sound, timely manner, and easily
understandable format using water chemistry, sediment,
and biological data.
SWAMP’s stated objectives are:
Organization and Implementation of the Network
SWAMP can be viewed as a three tiered program with a distinct set of goals assigned to each tier.
Last updated: September 21, 2011
2600 Blair Stone Road M.S. 3500
Tallahassee, Florida 32399
850-245-8336 (phone) / 850-245-8356 (fax)