| Abstract: | ABSTRACT: Of the 1,700 streams located in the state of Florida, the northwest area contains approximately 1,000 streams and three of the five largest rivers, namely the Apalachicola, the Choctawhatchee, and the Escambia. This 11,200 square-mile area contains 11 drainage basins and receives an average annual rainfall which ranges from 53 inches in the east to 67 inches in the west. Basin water yields range from a high of 3,376 cfs (2,180 mgd) to a low of 672 cfs (434 mgd). Individual basin outflows range from a high of 25,743 cfs (16,630 mgd) to a low of 844 cfs (545 mgd). Approximately 67 percent of the total northwest Florida basin outflows to the Gulf of Mexico, or 36,805 cfs (23,766 mgd), are received in the form of surface water inflows from Alabama and Georgia. In the absence of any interstate mechanism for water management between Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, the basin outflow estimates presented in this paper depend greatly on the upstream usage in the neighboring states. The establishment of a tri-state water management program could eliminate the uncertainty involved in predicting water availability in northwest Florida and ensure sufficient quantities of flows in the streams. |
