BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

SB 638 (Montford) and HB 1347 (Shoaf) amend Florida Forever Trust Fund allocations to direct specified allocations to areas within the Apalachicola Area of Critical State Concern. SB 638 appropriates at least $12 million annually from the Florida Forever for five years to the Apalachicola Area of Critical State Concern. It renames the area as the Apalachicola Area of Critical State Concern. The bill provides additional principles for guiding development within the area to include land acquisition and projects for stormwater facilities, central sewage facilities, onsite sewage treatment systems and other projects that protect and improve surface and groundwater quality. HB 1347 is similar to SB 638, except that it directs that the existing 3% of Florida Forever proceeds allocated for public access projects include projects for affordable housing. In addition, HB 1347 directs that for a five-year period, 35% of Florida Forever proceeds be directed to projects to improve surface water and groundwater quality within the Apalachicola River and in Apalachicola Bay. (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)

HB 207 (McClain) and 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. (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)

HB 569 (Overdorf) and SB 1036 (Albritton) require the presence, storage or use of diesel exhaust fluid on the premises of a public airport 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 Environmental Protection 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 DEP 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)

HB 1091 (Fine) and 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 until a violation is resolved by order or judgment, each day a violation occurs or is not remediated shall constitute a separate offense. (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)

HB 1001 (Stone) and 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, the types of projects eligible for specified tax credits to include building materials for housing projects that contain a specified percentage set aside for affordable housing and entities that may propose brownfield designations. In addition, the bills set forth defenses to certain causes of action concerning specified discharges or other types of pollution resulting from specified discharges. (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)