BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

CS/HB 1091 (Fine) and CS/CS/SB 1450 (Gruters) increase penalties by 50% for violations of state environmental laws, including laws relating to pollution of groundwater and surface water, litter, coral reefs, aquatic preserves and solid waste. The bills provide that each day a violation occurs shall constitute a separate offense. CS/CS/SB 1450 also encourages counties and municipalities to establish an evaluation and rehabilitation program for “sanitary sewer laterals” on residential and commercial properties to identify and reduce extraneous flow from leaking laterals. The bill specifies contents of the program, including the establishment of a publicly accessible database to store information concerning properties where a defective lateral has been identified. In addition, the bill requires sellers to real property to disclose to prospective purchasers any known defects in the properties’ sanitary sewer lateral. (O’Hara)

HB 5401 (Agriculture & Natural Resources Appropriations) transfers the powers, duties and functions of the Office of Energy from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of Environmental Protection. (O’Hara)

CS/HB 775 (Aloupis) and SB 1390 (Simmons) require comprehensive plans and plan amendments adopted by local governments whose boundaries include the Everglades Protection Area to follow the state coordinated review process for state agency compliance review under Part II, Chapter 163, Florida Statutes, and require the Department of Environmental Protection to coordinate with the affected local governments on mitigation measures for plans or plan amendments that would impact Everglades restoration. CS/HB 775 was amended to address the geographical scope of the bill and now requires the state coordinated review process for plans and plan amendments that “apply” to land that, in whole or in part, is within the EPA or is located within two miles of the EPA. CS/HB 775 prevents such plan amendments from being adopted by a local government if the local government fails to modify the amendment to address DEP’s concerns. Lastly, the amended bill requires counties that include any part of the EPA and all municipalities within such counties to transmit copies of all small-scale plan amendments to the DEP within 10 days after adoption of the amendment. (O’Hara)

HB 4999 (Ingoglia) provides $5.9 million to the Department of Financial Services to fund the Statewide Sea Level Rise Tracking Program. The program will provide additional GPS monitoring of land subsidence at various points around the state to evaluate the rate of land subsidence in Florida. (O’Hara)

SB 7016 (Infrastructure & Security Committee) and HB 1073 (Stevenson) establish the Statewide Office of Resiliency within the Executive Office of the Governor and provide for the establishment of a chief resiliency officer by the governor. The bills create the Statewide Sea-Level Rise Task Force within the Department of Environmental Protection for the purpose of recommending consensus projections of the anticipated sea-level rise and flooding impacts along the state’s coastline. The bills direct the Task Force to submit its recommended consensus projections to the Environmental Regulation Commission by January 2021, which shall adopt or reject the recommendations. If adopted by the ERC, the bills direct the projections shall serve as the state’s official estimate of sea-level rise and flooding impacts along the state’s coastline and must be used for developing future state projects, plans and programs. (O’Hara)

SB 1722 (Taddeo) requires the Department of Environmental Protection to review and updates its 2010 Retail Bags Report and analyze the need for regulation of auxiliary containers, wrappings or disposable plastic bags. The bill requires the updated report be provided to the Legislature by December 2020. It further provides that until the Legislature adopts the recommendations of the report or until July 2021, whichever is earlier, a local government may not regulate such products. (O’Hara)

SB 1232 (Rouson) and HB 913 (Diamond) establish an interagency Florida Climate and Resiliency Research Program within the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to assist the state in assessing and responding to the effects of climate change. The bills identify agencies and entities as participants in the program and direct the program to prepare an assessment of the effects of climate change on various metrics, including natural resources and environment, human health, infrastructure, energy and the economy. The bills require the program to deliver an annual Florida Resiliency Plan to the Legislature beginning January 2021, which shall include the program's assessment of climate effects and recommendations on mitigation strategies. (O’Hara)

CS/CS/CS/HB 1001 (Stone) and CS/SB 1350 (Baxley) revise provisions of the Florida Brownfields program, including conditions under which an applicant that has rehabilitated a contaminated site may receive tax credits. In addition, the bills set forth defenses to certain causes of action concerning specified discharges or other types of pollution resulting from specified discharges. The bills also clarify that actions for damages under Section 376.313, Florida Statutes, that result from a discharge or other condition of pollution apply to damages to real or personal property where the discharge or condition was not authorized by any governmental approval or permit. (O’Hara)

SB 1788 (Stewart) authorizes counties and municipalities to establish by ordinance boating-restricted areas within 200 feet of any shoreline. (O’Hara)

SB 686 (Gruters) and HB 405 (Good) direct the Department of Environmental Protection to adopt statewide environmental resource permitting rules for stormwater management in coordination with the water management districts. The bills direct the water management districts to adopt rules governing design and performance standards that increase the removal of nutrients from stormwater discharges from all new development and redevelopment projects, and direct DEP to incorporate the design and performance standards by reference for use within each district to ensure that new pollutant loadings are not discharged into water bodies. The bills direct that by December 2020, the department and districts shall amend the applicant’s handbook to include revised best management practices design criteria, low-impact design best management practices and design criteria that increase the removal of nutrients from stormwater discharges from all new development and redevelopment and measure for consistent application of net improvement performance standards to ensure that new pollutant loadings are not discharged into impaired water bodies. The bills provide for a rebuttable presumption that a stormwater system designed, constructed and maintained in accordance with the criteria adopted by the DEP and districts and a valid permit issued pursuant to such standards does not cause or contribute to violations of applicable water quality standards. The bills require training and assessment of government staff including coordination of field inspections of publicly and privately owned stormwater controls. The bills require the rules to be updated based on new scientific information by July 2021. Finally, the bills modify requirements for electronic self-certification by registered professionals for stormwater system permits serving project areas of 10 acres or less. (O’Hara)

SB 648 (Berman) directs the Department of Environmental Protection to develop a Sargassum Seaweed Matching Grant Program to provide annual grants, subject to legislative appropriation, to qualified local government entities to fund projects related to the buildup of Sargassum seaweed in coastal communities. The bill directs the grant program to require a 50 percent match of local funds and requires the department to provide annual reports regarding the projects funded. (O’Hara)

HB 365 (Watson, B.) and SB 770 (Rodriguez) expand qualifying improvements under the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program. PACE is a means for property owners to voluntarily finance private property improvements related to renewable energy and energy efficiency through assessments levied on their property tax bill. The bills include sewage treatment and seawall improvements as “qualifying improvements” eligible for PACE financing. In addition, SB 770 includes in the program improvements to the underground infrastructure of homes to promote greater resiliency, such as raising electrical boxes or home foundations. (O’Hara)

SB 332 (Stewart) and HB 849 (Altman) appropriate $100 million annually from the state Land Acquisition Trust Fund to the Florida Forever Trust Fund and prohibit the use of moneys in the state Land Acquisition Trust Fund from being used for agency executive direction and support services. HB 849 also revises the date by which bonds issued to the Florida Forever Act are intended to be retired (from 2040 to 2054). (O’Hara)

HB 6077 (Eskamani) repeals provisions of law enacted in the 2019 Legislative Session that imposed requirements and restrictions on local regulation of tree pruning, trimming or removal on residential property. (O’Hara)

SB 182 (Stewart) deletes existing statutory preemptions of local laws relating to the regulation of auxiliary containers, wrappings or disposable plastic bags and repeals the statutory preemption of local laws regarding the use or sale of polystyrene products to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. (O’Hara)

SB 592 (Pizzo) and HB 6039 (Duran) delete a preemption in existing state law that prohibits local governments from regulating the types of paint or marking device, or from requiring removal of such marks used to identify underground facilities. (O’Hara)

SB 278 (Rodriguez) requires the Florida Department of Health to prepare an annual climate health planning report to assess the threat to human health caused by climate change and to develop strategies to help the state’s communities prepare for the health effects of climate change. The bill directs the DOH to consult with various state and local agencies in preparing the report and include one-year, five-year, 10-year and 20-year recommendations for policy and budget priorities associated with identified threats. (O’Hara)

SB 280 (Rodriguez) directs the state Economic Estimating Conference to annually prepare a climate fiscal responsibility report in cooperation with various state agencies. The bill requires the report to analyze the estimated impact of climate change on the state’s general obligation credit rating, debt capacity and tax base associated with increased frequency and intensity of natural disasters, as well as long-term trends like sea-level rise and global temperature changes. The report must also recommend actions to be taken over the next five, 10 and 20 years. (O’Hara)

SB 200 (Montford) and HB 547 (Fitzenhagen) prohibit the performance of “high-pressure well stimulation” and “matrix acidization” (commonly referred to as “fracking”) as defined in the bills. (O’Hara)

CS/SB 1878 (Bradley) requires a minimum annual appropriation for Everglades restoration and the protection of water resources in the state and provides requirements for the allocation of such funding. Beginning fiscal year 2020-21 and every year thereafter, the bill specifies a minimum of $625 million for such purposes. The bill allocates this funding as follows: $236 million for the Everglades Agricultural Area reservoir project; $64 million for the South Florida Water Management District for aquifer storage and recovery wells; $50 million funding for springs restoration as provided in law; $40 million for alternative water supplies or water conservation; $25 million for watersheds of the St. Johns River, Suwannee River, and the Apalachicola River; $10 million for the Florida Resilient Coastline Initiative; $15 million for Indian River Lagoon projects; $10 million for coral reefs; $4 million for red tide research; and any remaining balance for water quality programs, alternative water supplies, Indian River Lagoon projects, algae bloom prevention and land acquisition pursuant to the Florida Forever program or Rural and Family Lands program. (O’Hara)