Suwannee River Water Management District Issues Water Use Permit for Levy County Farm
A new individual water use permit for a Levy County property is among two dozen issued by the district in the past month, with a 21-day window for affected parties to request a hearing.
What was issued
The Suwannee River Water Management District has issued a new Water Use Permit for a property listed as Holliday Brothers in Levy County. The permit, numbered 255018-1, was issued July 28, 2026, and falls under the district’s “WUP Individual” category — a permit type that authorizes a specific quantity of water withdrawal, typically for agricultural or commercial use, rather than the general or “noticed” categories the district also administers.
The Holliday Brothers permit is the only Levy County entry on the district’s most recent 30-day Notice of Permit Issuance list, which otherwise covers projects in Alachua, Suwannee, Columbia, Dixie, Madison, Lafayette and Union counties. The district’s jurisdiction spans all of those counties plus Levy, Gilchrist, Hamilton and parts of others, so a single county’s presence on any given list can shift month to month depending on where applications are filed and processed.
What the notice does not say
The district’s posting does not include the withdrawal quantity authorized under the Holliday Brothers permit, the water source, or the specific use — details that are contained in the full permit and staff report, not the summary notice itself. Those documents are available through the district’s E-Permitting portal by searching the permit number. The notice format is consistent across all entries: it names the rule category, issuance date, permit number, project name and county, with no acreage, gallons-per-day figures or narrative explanation posted directly on the page.
Why this matters for the county
Water use permits are how the district tracks and limits groundwater and surface water withdrawals across the Suwannee River basin, of which Levy County’s inland areas are a part. Individual permits like this one are reviewed against the district’s consumptive use criteria, including impacts to nearby wells, wetlands and, in some cases, spring flows — a standing concern in a district that includes some of the state’s most closely watched spring systems. The district does not state in this notice whether the Holliday Brothers permit involved any special conditions tied to nearby springs or wetlands; that would appear in the staff report attached to the E-Permitting record.
The hearing window
Under Florida Administrative Code Title 28, anyone who believes they are substantially affected by the permit decision can request an administrative hearing. That request must be submitted in writing after reviewing the staff report, and the district treats all related records as subject to public disclosure. The notice does not specify a hard deadline for that request beyond directing affected parties to the applicable rule, so anyone considering a challenge should confirm the filing window directly with the district’s regulatory staff.
How to look it up
Residents or landowners wanting to see the underlying application, staff report or permit conditions for 255018-1 can search that number on the district’s E-Permitting website. General questions can be directed to the district’s regulatory support desk at regulatory-support@srwmd.org, or by calling the district office in Live Oak at 386-362-1001.
The broader list posted this cycle also includes permits tied to public infrastructure — a Newberry Elementary School stormwater project in Alachua County and a Columbia County Tax Collector’s Office site plan — showing the range of applicants, from individual farms to government buildings, that fall under the same permitting rules governing water use and stormwater management across the district’s ten-county footprint.