BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

CS/CS/SB 712 (Mayfield) and HB 1343 (Payne) make changes to current law relating to water quality improvements: septic systems, basin management action plans, stormwater management systems, land application of biosolids, sanitary sewer overflows and wastewater projects grants. 

•Transfer of Septic Tank Program – The bills transfer regulation of septic tanks from the Department of Health to the Department of Environmental Protection and directs DEP to develop rules for the location of septic tanks to prevent groundwater and surface water contamination and to protect public health. The bills establish a septic tank technical advisory committee to submit recommendations for advanced nutrient removal technologies and other regulatory matters. HB 1343 includes additional provisions authorizing hardship variances for certain property subject to the one-septic tank/acre constraint in springs protection areas.

•Stormwater – The bills direct the DEP and water management districts to initiate rulemaking for stormwater design criteria. CS/CS/CS/SB 712 further directs the agencies to revise stormwater best management practices by January 2021 to increase nutrient load removal and requires application of a “net improvement” performance standard. The Senate bill also directs DEP by January 2021 to evaluate performance data relating to stormwater “self-certification” and to recommend improvements to the program to the Legislature. DEP and the Department of Economic Opportunity, with local government cooperation, are charged with developing a model stormwater management program that will include model ordinances that target nutrient reduction and green infrastructure.

•BMAPs – The bills require a BMAP to include a wastewater plan if DEP determines wastewater treatment facilities are contributing more than 20% of nutrient pollution or if deemed necessary to achieve the nutrient total maximum daily load (TMDL) for the BMAP. The wastewater plan is to be developed by each responsible local government, and the plan must address the facility upgrades or changes necessary to meet TMDL requirements. The wastewater plan must include a timeline for projects and estimated costs, and the plan must be adopted by July 2025. The bills prohibit DEP from requiring a higher cost project option for a wastewater plan if a lower cost option would achieve the same load reductions. The bills require a BMAP to include a septic remediation plan if DEP determines that septic tanks are contributing more than 20% of nutrient pollution or if deemed necessary to achieve the nutrient TMDL for the BMAP. The septic remediation plan must be developed by each responsible local government and must identify projects necessary to reduce nutrient loads and include an inventory of existing septic tanks. The septic remediation plan must also identify septic tanks that will be connected to central sewer, replaced or upgraded, and it must include estimated costs to implement projects. The septic remediation plan must be adopted as part of the BMAP by July 2025. The bills also require DEP to submit a report to the Legislature by July 2021 evaluating the costs of all septic system and wastewater treatment projects identified in BMAPs and identifying funding plans for the projects on a five-year basis. In addition, the bills require DEP to submit a report to the Legislature by July 2021 assessing the water quality monitoring being conducted for each BMAP that is subject to nutrient load reductions.

•Agriculture – The bills require the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to collect fertilizer and nutrient records from producers enrolled in the agricultural best management practices program and provide such records to DEP. Both bills require DACS to conduct onsite inspections of enrollees every two years. CS/CS/CS/SB 712 also authorizes the creation of a “cooperative agricultural regional water quality improvement element” as part of a basin management action plan under specified conditions and establishes qualifications for participating in the element.

•Wastewater Grant Program – The bills establish a wastewater grant program in DEP to provide a 50% match for specified projects intended to reduce nutrient loads. 

•Biosolids – CS/CS/CS/SB 712 expresses legislative intent to expedite implementation of the Biosolids Technical Advisory Committee. Both bills direct DEP to adopt rules for biosolids. CS/CS/CS/SB 712 requires biosolids application sites to comply with DEP rules in effect at the time of permit renewal and requires such sites to be enrolled in the DACS best management practices program. In addition, the Senate bill requires a permittee to conduct the application of biosolids in accordance with an adopted BMAP and requires the use of groundwater monitoring for specified application sites. The Senate bill also limits or prohibits the application of biosolids on certain sites based on water table levels until the effective date of biosolids rules adopted by DEP. CS/CS/CS/SB 712 grandfathers certain existing local ordinances relating to biosolids adopted prior to November 2019. 

•Sanitary Sewer Overflows – The bills require wastewater facilities to provide a power outage contingency plan and to develop an assessment, repair and replacement plan that complies with DEP rules. The bills direct DEP to conduct rulemaking on this subject. The plans shall be reported to DEP and must include expenditures taken for assessment, repair and replacement. A wastewater facility’s substantial compliance with these planning and reporting requirements may be evidence for mitigating applicable DEP environmental penalties. In addition, a facility may receive a 10-year operating permit if it is meeting the goals of its action plan. The bills require wastewater facilities to provide annual reports to DEP detailing revenues and expenditures as prescribed by DEP rule, and a facility’s substantial compliance with this requirement may be evidence for mitigating DEP penalties. CS/CS/CS/SB 712 requires DEP to submit an annual report to the Legislature detailing all facilities that experienced sanitary sewer overflows over the reporting period. 

•Additional DEP and Agency Reports – The bills require DEP to report by July 2020 the status of upgrades by specified wastewater utilities that are required to meet advanced treatment standards under current law, and the bill also requires DEP to submit cost estimates for wastewater facility and septic system remediation projects to the Office of Economic and Demographic Research beginning July 2022. EDR is required to include these cost estimates in its annual water resources assessment.

•Monetary Penalties – The bills modify current law requirements on administrative penalties assessed by DEP. Total administrative penalties increased from $10,000 to $50,000. Wastewater violation penalties are included under the defined administrative penalties, these penalties increased by 50%: from $1,000 to $2,000 and $2,000 to $4,000, respectively.

•DEP Secretary – CS/CS/CS/SB 712 changes the appointment process for the DEP secretary, requiring the concurrence of only one member of the Cabinet rather than three members as provided in current law.

•Bottled Water – CS/CS/CS/SB 712 requires a consumptive use permit for bottled water to be approved by unanimous vote of a water management district governing board. The bill also requires DEP to conduct a study on the bottled water industry in Florida and requires the subjects to be addressed in the study. It requires the report to be submitted to the governor and legislature by June 2021.

•Water Management District Annual Reports – CS/CS/CS/SB 712 requires water management districts to submit a copy of their annual reports to the Office of Economic and Demographic Research and requires the reports to include in the listing of projects to implement a BMAP, any projects converting septic systems to sewer or enhanced nutrient reducing systems. 

•Legal Standing – CS/CS/SB 712 prohibits local governments from recognizing or granting certain legal rights to the natural environment (e.g., granting legal standing to waterbodies) or granting enforcement of such rights to persons or political subdivision.  (O’Hara)

SB 1786 (Stewart) prohibits a vessel operator from allowing passengers to ride on the bow of a vessel and sets forth circumstances under which causing wake to law enforcement vessels constitutes careless operation by a vessel operator. (O’Hara)

CS/HB 1095 (Fitizenhagen) and SB 1464 (Flores) provide for noncriminal infractions relating to the transportation of certain hazardous materials regulated by the United States Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and authorize the state fire marshal or fire chief of the county in which the infraction occurs to issue a citation to any excavator or member operator who commits such infraction. CS/HB 1095 was amended to include municipal fire chiefs within this grant of authority to issue citations (current law authorizes citations to also be issued by any local or state law enforcement operator, code inspector or code enforcement officer). The bills provide for enhanced civil penalties and provide that if the citation is issued by one of the locally specified officers, the civil penalty collected by the clerk of court shall be distributed to the government entity of the employee issuing the citation. The bills specify that certain incident reports relating to the excavation of underground utilities must be submitted to the state fire marshal and specified local officers and authorize the fire marshal and local officers to issue citations and civil penalties. The bills remove provisions relating to the Division of Administrative Hearings of certain incidents relating to underground facility excavation. The bills create an underground facility damage prevention review panel under the state fire marshal to review complaints of alleged violations of the Underground Facility Damage Prevention and Safety Act to identify issues with damage prevention and enforcement. The panel is directed to determine if any statutory changes are needed to make pipes or facilities that transport hazardous materials safer and more resilient. The bills direct that panel members be appointed by Sunshine State One-Call of Florida and specify membership requirements of the panel. (O’Hara)

SB 286 (Rodriguez) and HB 1069 (Joseph) establish a carbon tax credit to reward and incent farmers in Florida to maintain or adopt agricultural practices that help maximize the state’s carbon sequestration potential. The bills define “carbon farming” as the use of strategies to reduce, mitigate and sequester greenhouse gas emissions on land to support a farm operation using the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s COMET-Planner and other quantification tools. (O’Hara)

HB 97 (Eskamani) and SB 256 (Rodriguez) direct the Office of Energy within the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to develop a statewide plan to generate the state’s electricity from renewable energy by specified dates, requiring 40% renewable energy by 2030 and 100% by 2050. The bills would require state and public entities and utilities to cooperate as requested and would require the Office of Energy to submit the plan and updates to the governor and Legislature. In addition, SB 256 would require the Florida Public Service Commission to adopt rules by 2021 for ratification by the Legislature providing for a renewable portfolio standard requiring each provider to supply renewable energy to its customers directly by procurement or through the purchase of renewable energy credits. (O’Hara)

SB 150 (Brandes) encourages municipalities and counties to establish an evaluation and rehabilitation program for sanitary sewer laterals on residential and commercial properties within their respective jurisdictions to identify and reduce leakage from lateral lines. The voluntary program may encompass methods to identify damaged laterals, consider methods for property owners to repair or replace damaged laterals, and establish a publicly accessible database to store information on properties where defective laterals have been identified. The bill would also require sellers of property to disclose to prospective purchasers any known defects of the property’s sanitary sewer lateral to the purchaser. (O’Hara)

SB 492 (Cruz) amends the Public Notification of Pollution statute to impose new duties on local governments, the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Health. The bill includes the discharge of perfluorooctanoic acid or perfluorooctanesulfonic acid as reportable releases of pollution under the statute, as well as the discharge of any substance that, if it impacted a water system, would result in a violation of state water quality standards. The bill requires DEP to notify by U.S. mail property owners with private wells in a 1-mile radius of any reported release or discharge under the law. In addition, the bill requires the DOH or a local government entity to notify the DEP and the owner or operator of an installation within 24 hours of discovery of any reportable release as defined in the statute, regardless of whether the department or the local government was the owner or operator of the installation responsible for the release. (O’Hara)

CS/CS/SB 178 (Rodriguez) and CS/CS/HB 579 (Aloupis) require contractors to conduct a sea-level impact projection (SLIP) study on state-funded buildings within the coastal building zone. Buildings subject to this requirement would include construction projects of a municipality, county or any other public agency that is using state-appropriated funds for the project. The bills require the Department of Environmental Protection to develop rules for conducting a SLIP study and specifies required components to be addressed in the rules. In addition, DEP must also approve and publish copies of all SLIP studies for at least 10 years. (O'Hara)

SB 40 (Rader) would prohibit stores and food service businesses from providing plastic carryout bags to customers. The bill provides exceptions for specified items. In addition, the bill prohibits a food service business from selling or providing single-use plastic straws to customers. The business may provide a straw upon request to a person who requires a straw due to a disability or medical condition. The bill provides a $500 penalty for a first violation and up to $1,000 for a subsequent violation. (O’Hara)

SB 288 (Rodriguez) exempts from the definition of “public utility” property owners who own and operate a renewable solar energy source device with a capacity of up to 2.5 megawatts on the property, produce renewable energy from that device and provide or sell the renewable energy to users located on that property. (O’Hara)

HB 773 (Maggard) provides notification requirements for electric utilities relating to the certification process for obtaining medically essential electric service and service disconnection, including a requirement to post the certification process on their websites and to provide a written explanation of the certification process to each residential utility customer upon opening an account and at least semi-annually. The bill directs electric utilities to develop a standard certification form to be used by each residential customer who wishes for certification. The bill specifies minimum requirements for service disconnection for customers whose electric service is certified as medically essential and specifies circumstances under which health care practitioners may certify that a customer should qualify for medically essential electric utility service. (O’Hara)

CS/CS/SB 826 (Mayfield) and HB 1329 (Plasencia) prohibit vessels under 500 gross tons in weight from remaining in the waters of marinas in a deep-water seaport that have been deemed not suitable for refuge upon issuance of a hurricane watch affecting the waters of marinas located in the deep-water seaport. (O’Hara)

SB 1432 (Torres) prohibits landfills from receiving fossil fuel combustion products. (O’Hara)

HB 1031 (Killebrew) and SB 724 (Albritton) extend the date by which each county must meet a statutorily established 75% recycling goal for recyclable waste from 2020 to 2024 and exempts fiscally constrained counties from statutory recycling goals. The bill authorizes the Department of Environmental Protection to direct a county that fails to meet statutory recycling goals by January 2025 to develop a plan to expand recycling programs to existing commercial and multifamily dwellings. The bill directs the DEP to issue a report to the governor and Legislature by January 2021 identifying any additional programs or statutory changes needed to achieve statutory recycling goals. (O’Hara)

SB 722 (Montford) provides for $50 million to be allocated for a five-year period from the Land Acquisition Trust Fund for projects dedicated to conservation and management activities in specified counties impacted by Hurricane Michael. (O’Hara)

SB 438 (Harrell) and HB 489 (Plasencia) provide that 7.6% or $50 million must be appropriated each year from the Land Acquisition Trust Fund for projects dedicated to the conservation and management of the Indian River Lagoon. The bills specify the funds shall be used for grant funding of projects to implement the Indian River Lagoon Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan and specify that grants for sewer system connection projects and discharge management projects must require a minimum 50% local match. (O’Hara)

HB 153 (Fine) and SB 640 (Harrell) provide that certain projects identified in the Indian River Lagoon Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan are eligible for funding consideration from the Department of Environmental Protection (agency program funds). The bills direct DEP to coordinate with water management districts to identify projects and requires annual reports from local governments and the districts. Projects include upgrade of facilities to advanced waste treatment, expansion of service connections of wastewater facilities and septic-to-sewer-conversions. Projects require a 50% local match. The bills require annual reports by the DEP and require local governments receiving state funds to submit annual status reports. (O’Hara)

SB 1720 (Cruz) and HB 1427 (Diamond) direct the Department of Environmental Protection to implement rules for statewide drinking water maximum contaminant levels for specified substances, including perfluorooctanesulfonic acid and perfluorooctanoic acid, which are used in firefighting foam, and any other pollutant for which two or more states have issued guidance. The bills specify any maximum contaminant level established by rule must protect the public health and may not exceed any maximum contaminant level established by the Environmental Protection Agency. (O’Hara)

HB 791 (Fitzenhagen) and SB 1608 (Mayfield) require the Department of Environmental Protection to give funding consideration to each of the state’s estuaries of national significance and require the funds be used for projects identified in the estuaries’ adopted comprehensive conservation and management plan. (O’Hara)

HB 1157 (Ingoglia) and SB 1284 (Diaz) create the Florida Land Subsidence Research Initiative as a partnership between the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Florida International University to determine the rate of land subsidence in the state by measuring changes in land elevation. The goal of the initiative is to collect and analyze data to understand natural hazards, such as land subsidence and sinkholes, and their effects on sea-level rise. The bills require an annual report to the Legislature on a biennial basis, starting July 2022, and require a final report to be submitted by July 2030. The final report shall include an estimation of current and future sea-level risks. (O’Hara)