U.S. Department of the Interior
US Geological Survey
OFR-FL75-009

Figure 1. Location of Broward County. [larger image]

Broward County is interlaced with primary and secondary canals originally designed for drainage and protection from flooding, but now used for recreation as well as receptacles for urban wastes. Primary canals have control structures in their lower reaches, near tidewater, to maintain high fresh-water heads in the canals for aquifer recharge and prevention of salt-water encroachment. Secondary canals, on the other hand, are used primarily for water management.

Broward County, on the southeast coast of Florida, contains many rapidly expanding urban areas, most of which are in eastern part. Because most of canals in the county are in these urban areas, the canals have become convenient receptacles for storm water runoff and sewage effluent. The degradation of the water quality in these canals greatly affects their usefulness to the community. Contaminants entering these waters could affect their tropic state and prevent optimal use. Both the Broward County Pollution Control Board and the Central and Southern Florida Flood Control District are concerned about the level of contaminants in the primary canals of Broward County and the effect of urbanization on the overall water quality. For these reasons they signed a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Geological Survey in 1969 to monitor the quality of water in the primary canals. Broward County, between Palm Beach County on the north and Dade County on the south, is shown in figure 1.

The purpose of this report is to:
1. Tabulate in a usable form all the basic water-quality data collected from 1969-74 as a part of the canal monitoring program.
2. Make these data available to assist in urban and regional planning of water resources.
3. Provide a supplement to a forthcoming interpretative report on the effect of urbanization on the primary canals in Broward County.

(The entire report is available below)

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