BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

SB 1098 (Cruz) directs the Department of Environmental Protection to assess bottled water companies a fee of 5 cents per gallon on water extracted for the production of bottled water, including water from an approved source (e.g., a water utility). The bill provides for fees to be deposited into the Water Protection and Sustainability Trust Fund. SB 1096 (Cruz) is a companion bill that is contingent on the passage of SB 1098. SB 1096 requires DEP to monitor the consumptive use permits for all bottled water companies to ensure compliance with limits of allowable water extraction and water from an approved source. It imposes a daily fine for bottled water companies that withhold the payment of fees and provides an exception for bottled water companies extracting less than 55 million gallons per year. (O’Hara)

SB 1112 (Taddeo) would impose an excise tax upon bottled water operators at a rate of 12.5 cents per gallon of water extracted from waters of the state. It directs proceeds of the tax to be deposited into the Wastewater Treatment and Stormwater Management Revolving Loan Trust Fund and directs that proceeds must be used to provide grants and loans to local governments, with priority given to projects that connect septic systems to central wastewater facilities. (O’Hara)

HB 1267 (Grall) and SB 1654 (Mayfield) prohibit the land application of biosolids on sites where the application zone interacts with the seasonal high-water table and prohibit the Department of Environmental Protection from issuing or renewing certain permits for such sites. The bills direct DEP to initiate rulemaking on site-specific requirements for biosolids application by a specified date, adopt rules and implement a water quality monitoring program sufficient to determine impacts from the application of biosolids to surface water and groundwater quality. Class AA biosolids are exempted from these requirements. The bills provide for continuing application of local ordinances relating to Class B biosolids until the DEP rules are adopted. (O’Hara)

SB 50 (Rader) would require consumers to pay deposit fees on specified beverage containers at the point of sale. The bill establishes requirements and registration processes for the operation of beverage container redemption centers by local governments, nonprofit agencies and other individuals for refunding beverage container deposits and arranging for the recovery and recycling of the beverage containers. The bill preempts local governments from imposing or collecting any assessment or fee on deposit beverage containers for the same purposes as specified in the bills. (O’Hara)

CS/HB 1363 (Overdorf) imposes additional requirements on entities and agencies subject to Basin Management Action Plans established to achieve Total Maximum Daily Load requirements. The bill requires a nonagricultural and agricultural nonpoint source owner or operator who discharges into a basin included in an adopted BMAP to comply with interim measures, best management practices or other measures adopted by rule within five years after the date of BMAP adoption. The bill requires that implementation of such actions be verified by the responsible agency by a site visit at least once every two years. The bill requires the adoption of a cooperative agricultural regional water quality improvement element as part of a BMAP if: adopted agricultural measures have been implemented and the water body remains impaired; agricultural nonpoint sources contribute to at least 20% of nonpoint source nutrient discharges, and Department of Environmental Protection determines that additional measures are necessary to meet the TMDL. The bill requires the development of a cooperative urban, suburban, commercial or institutional regional water quality improvement element as part of a BMAP in which: nonagricultural interim measures and best management practices have been implemented and the waterbody remains impaired, nonagricultural nonpoint sources contribute at least 20% of nonpoint source nutrient discharges, and DEP determines additional measures are needed to achieve the TMDL. The bill establishes a nutrient reduction cost-share program within DEP to provide funding for specified projects in a BMAP, including projects identified in the new plan elements as authorized by the bill. The bill provides funding priority for projects and requires a 50% match of local funds. The bill exempts rural homesteads as defined in the bill from BMAP requirements, so long as the activity on such homestead does not rise to the level of bona fide agricultural activity and is classified as agricultural for tax assessment purposes. (O’Hara)

CS/SB 638 (Montford) and CS/HB 1347 (Shoaf) direct that for a five-year period starting in the 2020-2021 fiscal year, at least $5 million of Florida Forever proceeds shall be directed to projects to improve surface water and groundwater quality within the Apalachicola Bay Area of Critical State Concern. (O’Hara)

SB 606 (Bean) and HB 417 (Duggan) add the Ortega River and the Cedar River in Duval County as statutorily designated “anchoring limitation areas.” (O’Hara)

CS/HB 207 (McClain) and CS/SB 658 (Albritton) would authorize a public water or wastewater utility to establish the rate base of an existing water or wastewater system it acquires using the fair market value of the utility, require the Florida Public Service Commission to provide specified information relating to utility valuation and require the commission to develop related rules. CS/SB 658 would also require a municipality providing water or sewer service to customers in another municipality from infrastructure located in the recipient municipality to charge customers in the recipient municipality the same rates as it does customers inside its own municipal boundaries. CS/HB 207 would provide an alternative method by which the PSC may establish the rate base value for an acquired utility system and establish a procedure for appraisal of the acquired utility system. The PSC directed the commission to develop rules for implementation. CS/HB 207 would also provide conditions under which certain entities may acquire title to any water or wastewater plant facilities that were previously acquired by eminent domain. (O’Hara)

HB 1351 (Fernandez) and SB 1824 (Rader) revise an existing law prohibition against local governments, deed restrictions or other agreements having the effect of prohibiting solar collectors or renewable energy devices from being installed on buildings. The term “solar collector” is replaced with “cool roofs.” The bills authorize the Board of Trustees for the Internal Improvement Trust Fund to lease the use of manmade stormwater management systems for floating solar energy systems. They create a greenhouse gas reporting system in the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to track data from reporting entities. State agencies are required to report greenhouse gas emissions data to the system, and local governments and private entities are encouraged to report such data. The bills create the Climate Adaptation Research Grant Program in FDACS to provide grants to educational institutions for research pertaining to climate change and strategies for adapting to climate change. They create the Clean Energy Research, Development, Demonstration and Deployment Center program in FDACS to provide grants to educational institutions for development of a clean energy center focused on research, development and deployment of clean energy technology. The bills create the Farm Renewable and Efficiency Demonstration program in FDACS to promote adoption of practices that increase energy efficiency and water conservation. They create an Agriculture Resiliency Grant program within FDACS to provide research grants for improving systems' resilience and efficiency. The bills modify current law provisions relating to the Florida Energy Systems Consortium within FDACS. (O’Hara)

CS/CS/HB 569 (Overdorf) and CS/SB 1036 (Albritton) require the presence, storage or use of diesel exhaust fluid on the premises of public airports meeting specified conditions to be phased out by October 2030. The bills require the managers of public airports to create a diesel exhaust fluid safety mitigation and exclusion plan containing specified contents and data. The plan must be approved by the regulatory agency having jurisdiction over the airport by September 2020 and must be submitted to the Department of Transportation by October 2020. The bills require the plan to be fully implemented on the premises of the airport by January 2021. The bills provide for annual review, update and submission of the plan to DOT for certification. (O’Hara)

SB 1560 (Braynon) and HB 1431 (Polo) address duties of the state fire marshal relating to construction materials mining and blasting activities. The bills make findings about impacts on blasting in areas low to the water table and specify intent for the chief financial officer to administer duties to protect homes from damages caused by blasting in such areas. The bills require all blasting reports to be submitted to the chief financial officer and state fire marshal and be made publicly available. HB 1431 also provides limits on blasting limits in areas having a low depths to the water table and authorizes a cause of action for civil damage for persons to recover damages resulting from the use of explosives in connection with mining activities. (O’Hara)

SB 1798 (Bradley) requires water management district governing boards to charge a fee of at least $1 million for a consumptive use permit to directly or indirectly use water derived from a spring for bottled drinking water. The bill directs proceeds from the fee to be used for springs restoration. (O’Hara)

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/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. CS/SB 1350 also clarifies 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)