Apshawa Lake South Minimum Levels

Apshawa Lake South is located in the Central Lakes District of Lake County, Florida, approximately 3 miles north of the city of Clermont. Together with the north lobe, Apshawa Lake South is approximately 98 acres. It was added to the St. Johns River Water Management District MFLs Priority List and Schedule as part of an effort to implement a regional network of MFLs sites within central Florida.

Apshawa Lake South is both ecologically and recreationally valuable, containing deep and shallow marsh habitat that serves as habitat for aquatic species, forage for wading bird species and nesting habitat for the sandhill crane. Because of its location within the Central Lakes District, an important recharge area for the Upper Floridan aquifer, Apshawa Lake South also functions as a regional sentinel site providing an important indicator of the effects of groundwater pumping on this and nearby lakes.

The district is currently completing a reevaluation of the adopted MFLs, to ensure the continued protection of Apshawa Lake South’s environmental resources, as well as to provide regional protection from groundwater withdrawal. The current plan is to submit a Notice of Proposed Rule (NPR) for Apshawa Lake South by the end of 2021. When draft MFLs documents are completed, they will be available on this page.

The district’s MFLs approach involves two separate but interrelated components: 1) MFLs Determination; and 2) MFLs Assessment. The first involves determining a minimum hydrologic regime necessary to protect relevant water resource values. The second involves comparing this MFLs condition to a current-pumping condition to determine the current status of the MFLs. The current-pumping condition could be above or below the MFLs condition. The overall process involves environmental assessment, hydrologic modeling, independent scientific peer review and rulemaking.