HB 933

1	A bill to be entitled
2	An act relating to the West-Central Florida Water
3	Restoration Action Plan; creating s. 373.0363, F.S.;
4	providing definitions; providing legislative findings;
5	requiring the Southwest Florida Water Management
6	District to implement the West-Central Florida Water
7	Restoration Action Plan; providing criteria governing
8	the implementation of the plan; requiring that the
9	district coordinate with regional water supply
10	authorities and governmental partners to maximize
11	opportunities concerning the efficient expenditure of
12	public funds; specifying the plan's purpose; specifying
13	the initiatives that are included in the plan; providing
14	criteria governing implementation of the Central West
15	Coast Surface Water Enhancement Initiative, the
16	Facilitating Agricultural Resource Management Systems
17	Initiative, the Ridge Lakes Restoration Initiative, the
18	Upper Peace River Watershed Restoration Initiative, and
19	the Central Florida Water Resource Development
20	Initiative and certain components or projects included
21	in such initiatives; providing for the Southwest Florida
22	Water Management District to include specified criteria
23	concerning implementation of the plan, regional
24	conditions, and the use of funds in specified annual
25	reports; requiring that the Southwest Florida Water
26	Management District develop and submit a plan to the
27	Legislature; providing for approval and implementation
28	of the plan; providing an effective date.
29
30	Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
31
32	Section 1.  Section 373.0363, Florida Statutes, is created
33	to read:
34	373.0363  West-Central Florida Water Restoration Action
35	Plan.--
36	(1)  As used in this section, the term:
37	(a)  "Central Florida Coordination Area" means all of Polk,
38	Osceola, Orange, and Seminole Counties, and southern Lake
39	County, as designated by the Southwest Florida Water Management
40	District, the South Florida Water Management District, and the
41	St. Johns River Water Management District.
42	(b)  "District" means the Southwest Florida Water
43	Management District.
44	(c)  "Southern Water Use Caution Area" means an area that
45	the district designated, after extensive collection of data and
46	numerous studies, in order to comprehensively manage water
47	resources in the Southern West-Central Groundwater Basin, which
48	includes all of Desoto, Hardee, Manatee, and Sarasota Counties,
49	and parts of Charlotte, Highlands, Hillsborough, and Polk
50	Counties.
51	(d)  "Southern Water Use Caution Area Recovery Strategy"
52	means the district's regulatory, planning, and financial
53	strategy for ensuring that adequate water supplies are available
54	to meet growing demands while protecting and restoring the water
55	and related natural resources of the area.
56	(e)  "West-Central Florida Water Restoration Action Plan"
57	means the district's regional environmental restoration and
58	water resource sustainability program for the Southern Water Use
59	Caution Area.
60	(2)  The Legislature finds that:
61	(a)  In response to growing demands from public supply,
62	agriculture, mining, power generation, and recreational users,
63	groundwater withdrawals in the Southern Water Use Caution Area
64	have steadily increased for nearly a century before peaking in
65	the mid-1970s. These withdrawals resulted in declines in aquifer
66	levels throughout the groundwater basin, which declines in some
67	areas exceeded 50 feet.
68	(b)  While groundwater withdrawals have since stabilized as
69	a result of the district's management efforts, depressed aquifer
70	levels continue to result in saltwater intrusion, reduced flows
71	in the Upper Peace River, lowered water levels, and adverse
72	water quality impacts for some lakes in the Lake Wales Ridge
73	areas of Polk and Highlands Counties.
74	(c)  In response to these resource concerns, and as
75	directed by s. 373.036, the district determined that traditional
76	sources of water in the region are not adequate to supply water
77	for all existing and projected reasonable and beneficial uses
78	and to sustain the water resources and related natural systems.
79	(d)  The expeditious implementation of the Southern Water
80	Use Caution Area Recovery Strategy is needed to meet the minimum
81	flow requirement for the Upper Peace River, slow saltwater
82	intrusion, provide for improved lake levels and water quality
83	along the Lake Wales Ridge, and ensure sufficient water supplies
84	for all existing and projected reasonable and beneficial uses.
85	(e)  Sufficient research has been conducted and sufficient
86	plans developed to immediately expand and accelerate programs to
87	sustain the water resources and related natural systems in the
88	Southern Water Use Caution Area.
89	(f)  Implementation of components of the Southern Water Use
90	Caution Area Recovery Strategy which are contained in the West-
91	Central Florida Water Restoration Action Plan is for the benefit
92	of the public health, safety, and welfare and is in the public
93	interest.
94	(g)  Implementation of the West-Central Florida Water
95	Restoration Action Plan is necessary to meet the minimum flow
96	requirement for the Upper Peace River, slow saltwater intrusion,
97	provide for improved lake levels and water quality along the
98	Lake Wales Ridge, and ensure sufficient water supplies for all
99	existing and projected reasonable and beneficial uses.
100	(h)  A continuing source of funding is needed to
101	effectively implement the West-Central Florida Water Restoration
102	Action Plan.
103	(3)  The district shall implement the West-Central Florida
104	Water Restoration Action Plan in a manner that furthers
105	progressive strategies for the management of water resources, is
106	watershed-based, provides for consideration of water quality
107	issues, and includes monitoring, the development and
108	implementation of best management practices, and structural and
109	nonstructural projects, including public works projects. The
110	district shall coordinate its implementation of the plan with
111	regional water supply authorities, public and private
112	partnerships, and local, state, and federal partners in order to
113	maximize opportunities for the most efficient and timely
114	expenditures of public funds.
115	(4)  The West-Central Florida Water Restoration Action Plan
116	includes:
117	(a)  The Central West Coast Surface Water Enhancement
118	Initiative. The purpose of this initiative is to make additional
119	surface waters available for public supply through restoration
120	of surface waters, natural water flows, and freshwater wetland
121	communities. This initiative is designed to allow limits on
122	groundwater withdrawals in order to slow the rate of saltwater
123	intrusion. The initiative shall be an ongoing program in
124	cooperation with the Peace River-Manasota Regional Water Supply
125	Authority created under s. 373.1962.
126	(b)  The Facilitating Agricultural Resource Management
127	Systems Initiative. The purpose of this initiative is to
128	expedite the implementation of production-scale, best management
129	practices in the agricultural sector, which will result in
130	reductions in groundwater withdrawals and improvements in water
131	quality, water resources, and ecology. The initiative is a cost-
132	share reimbursement program to provide funding incentives to
133	agricultural landowners for the implementation of best
134	management practices. The initiative shall be implemented by the
135	district in cooperation with the Department of Agriculture and
136	Consumer Services. Cooperative funding programs approved by the
137	governing board shall not be subject to the rulemaking
138	requirements of chapter 120. However, any portion of an approved
139	program which affects the substantial interests of a party shall
140	be subject to s. 120.569.
141	(c)  The Ridge Lakes Restoration Initiative. The purpose of
142	this initiative is to protect, restore, and enhance natural
143	systems and flood protection by improving and protecting the
144	water quality of approximately 130 lakes located along the Lake
145	Wales Ridge in Polk and Highlands Counties, which quality is
146	threatened by stormwater runoff, wastewater effluent, fertilizer
147	applications, groundwater pollution, degradation of shoreline
148	habitats, and hydrologic alterations. This initiative shall be
149	accomplished through the construction of systems designed to
150	treat the stormwater runoff that threatens the water quality of
151	such lakes. Such systems include swales, retention basins, and
152	long infiltration basins, if feasible.
153	(d)  The Upper Peace River Watershed Restoration
154	Initiative. The purpose of this initiative is to improve the
155	quality of waters and ecosystems in the watershed of the Upper
156	Peace River by recharging aquifers, restoring the flow of
157	surface waters, and restoring the capacity of natural systems to
158	store surface waters. The Legislature finds that such
159	improvements are necessary because the quantity and quality of
160	the fresh water that flows to the basin of the Peace River and
161	Charlotte Harbor are adversely affected by the significant
162	alteration and degradation of the watershed of the Upper Peace
163	River and because restoration of the watershed of the Upper
164	Peace River is a critical component of the Charlotte Harbor
165	National Estuary Program's Comprehensive Conservation and
166	Management Plan, the Southwest Florida Water Management
167	District's Surface Water Improvement and Management Plan, and
168	the Southern Water Use Caution Area Recovery Strategy. This
169	initiative shall include an Upper Peace River Component. In
170	addition to the initiative's other purposes, this component will
171	provide a critical link to a major greenway that extends from
172	the lower southwest coast of this state through the watershed of
173	the Peace River and the Green Swamp and further north to the
174	Ocala National Forest.
175	(e)  The Central Florida Water Resource Development
176	Initiative. The purpose of this initiative is to create and
177	implement a long-term plan that takes a comprehensive approach
178	to limit ground water withdrawals in the Southern Water Use
179	Caution Area and to identify and develop alternative water
180	supplies for Polk County. The project components developed
181	pursuant to this initiative are eligible for state and regional
182	funding under s. 373.196 as an alternative water supply, as
183	defined in s. 373.019, or as a supplemental water supply under
184	the rules of the Southwest Florida Water Management District or
185	the South Florida Water Management District. The initiative
186	shall be implemented by the district as an ongoing program in
187	cooperation with Polk County and the South Florida Water
188	Management District.
189	(5)  As part of the consolidated annual report required
190	pursuant s. 373.036(7), the district may include:
191	(a)  A summary of the conditions of the Southern Water Use
192	Caution Area, including the status of the components of the
193	West-Central Florida Water Restoration Action Plan.
194	(b)  An annual accounting of the expenditure of funds. The
195	accounting must, at a minimum, provide details of expenditures
196	separately by plan component and any subparts of a plan
197	component, and include specific information about amount and use
198	of funds from federal, state, and local government sources. In
199	detailing the use of these funds, the district shall indicate
200	those funds that are designated to meet requirements for
201	matching funds.
202	(6)  The district shall submit the West-Central Florida
203	Water Restoration Action Plan developed pursuant to subsection
204	(4) to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House
205	of Representatives prior to the 2010 regular legislative session
206	for review. If the Legislature takes no action on the plan
207	during the 2010 regular legislative session, the plan shall be
208	deemed approved and may be implemented.
209	Section 2.  This act shall take effect July 1, 2009.

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.