How does state law address polluted springs?
Through plans called Springs BMAPs.
Florida's springs are suffering from nitrate pollution. The only tool the state has to reduce nitrates and restore springs to health are called Basin Management Action Plans, or BMAPs.
The 2016 Springs & Aquifer Protection Act identified a list of 30 Outstanding Florida Springs. The law provides that if any of those springs are found to be polluted by nitrates, DEP must write a Springs BMAP, a plan to restore the spring to health.
Florida's 30 Outstanding Florida Springs
These 24 springs are polluted by excessive nitrates and require a BMAP to restore water quality:
Chassahowitzka Springs Group Madison Blue Spring
Crystal River Manatee Spring
DeLeon Spring Peacock Springs
Devil’s Ear Spring Rainbow Spring Group
Falmouth Spring Rock Springs
Fanning Springs Silver Springs
Gemini Springs Troy Spring
Homasassa Spring Group Volusia Blue Spring
Hornsby Spring Wacissa Spring Group
Ichetucknee Spring Group Wakulla Spring
Jackson Blue Spring Weeki Wachee Springs Group
Lafayette Blue Spring Wekiwa Spring
These 6 springs are currently meeting water quality standards and do not require a BMAP:
*Alexander Spring
*Columbia Spring
*Gainer Spring Group
*Poe Spring
*Silver Glen Springs
*Treehouse Spring
Springs BMAPs are being updated in 2025
Springs BMAPs are required to restore springs to health within a 20-year timeframe, and the clock started ticking when springs BMAPs were released in 2018, requiring the state to restore springs to health by 2038.
But DEP violated Florida law to protect polluters, writing BMAPs that were never going to work. Those BMAPs should have reduced pollution by 4 million pounds between 2018 and 2023, but instead, weak BMAPs have allowed pollution in those springs to increase by more than 1.5 million pounds in that time, putting us years behind and adding even more pollution removal to an already monumental task.
Judges ruled in our favor that their plans were insufficient and did not meet requirements of law, so now DEP is updating those BMAPs.
An essential part of this process is for springs advocates to get involved and demand that DEP uphold its legal responsibility to create viable plans to restore polluted springs. We will provide the information advocates need during this process so that we can work together for cleaner springs.
This two minute explainer video gives you the background you need: