Thanks guys. I do want my well(s) to be permitted so I might ask for more details when I get there. I'm buying 5 acres on a former citrus grove in Vero Beach and I close at the end of the month.
Chances are your property has (or the entire rove if yours is carved from a larger farm) a water use permit from the SFWMD for groundwater use. It may be possible to secure the portion of the allocation proportional to your acreage.
Check out the sfwmd.gov page and look at the e-permiting feature if will show you what is in place.
The also have a user friendly geospatial database that includes information on water facilities and permits.
This link should get you to the map tool
https://apps.sfwmd.gov/WAB/SFWMDMapping/index.htmlYou will need to turn on the permit layer
TO do this,
1) Select the "Layer List" It is the second button in the row of button at the bottom of your screen, the green one
2) Click in the check box next to the "Consumptive use permit" (third from the bottom - you may need to scroll down the list)
If you are familiar with these tools, items show up as you zoom in and the permit information is very dense, it is best viewed as you zoom into your project area.
Water rights in Florida is very unique. It is not like in California or the rest of the country. No one owns water rights in Florida (other than the Indian tribes, these are independent nations in their own right and have their own laws rules and regulations)
For the rest of us, water is a public asset the rights to which are determined by the board of 5 water management districts. There are very formal rules for making those determinations. The board are not elected board (an attempt to make water right not a political issue), but appointed by the governor for 4 year terms, staggered so that there is always experience on the board. They have responsibility for developing water resources not just allocating it, they plan for 20 years into the future (and update the plans every 5 years extending the look so that they are always anticipating needs 20 years out) and develop resources so that users can get water up to and during drought of a 1 in 10 year severity. They also have water quality, restoration and flood control responsibilities.
Back to water rights, no one owns water. You need to justify that your need is a beneficial use of water and you meet the appropriate tests (including avoiding impact to wetlands or existing legal users) and you get an allocation. Your permit may have a 5 year duration after which you renew and may be as long as 20 years (usually for public water supply utilities who need the longer assurance of water for bonding purposes and capital investments).
If this is not too boring for you and want to learn some more, I will be glad to point you to resources on the web sites of the SFWMD which is where many of you have indicated interest in moving to.
