Florida Senate - 2021                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. SB 1522
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Ì756710ÄÎ756710                         
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
                    Senate             .             House              
                  Comm: RCS            .                                
                  03/29/2021           .                                
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       The Committee on Environment and Natural Resources (Stewart)
       recommended the following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
    2  
    3         Delete everything after the enacting clause
    4  and insert:
    5         Section 1. This act may be cited as the “Implementation of
    6  Governor DeSantis’ Blue-Green Algae Task Force Recommendations
    7  Act.”
    8         Section 2. Present subsections (5), (6), and (7) of section
    9  381.0065, Florida Statutes, are redesignated as subsections (6),
   10  (7), and (8), respectively, and a new subsection (5) is added to
   11  that section, to read:
   12         381.0065 Onsite sewage treatment and disposal systems;
   13  regulation.—
   14         (5) PERIODIC INSPECTIONS.—
   15         (a)Effective July 1, 2024, the owner of an onsite sewage
   16  treatment and disposal system, excluding a system required to
   17  have an operating permit, must have the system inspected at
   18  least once every 5 years to assess the fundamental operational
   19  condition of the system, prolong the life of the system, and
   20  identify any failure within the system. The department shall
   21  administer an onsite sewage treatment and disposal system
   22  inspection program for such periodic inspections. The department
   23  shall implement the program standards, procedures, and
   24  requirements, and adopt rules that must include, at a minimum,
   25  all of the following:
   26         1.A schedule for a 5-year inspection cycle.
   27         2.A county-by-county implementation plan phased in over a
   28  10-year period with first priority given to those areas within a
   29  springshed protection area identified by the department.
   30         3.Minimum standards for a functioning system.
   31         4.Requirements for the pumpout or repair of a failing
   32  system.
   33         5.Enforcement procedures for failure of a system owner to
   34  obtain an inspection of the system and failure of a contractor
   35  to timely report inspection results to the department and the
   36  system owner.
   37         Section 3. Paragraph (a) of subsection (7) of section
   38  403.067, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
   39         403.067 Establishment and implementation of total maximum
   40  daily loads.—
   41         (7) DEVELOPMENT OF BASIN MANAGEMENT PLANS AND
   42  IMPLEMENTATION OF TOTAL MAXIMUM DAILY LOADS.—
   43         (a) Basin management action plans.—
   44         1. In developing and implementing the total maximum daily
   45  load for a water body, the department, or the department in
   46  conjunction with a water management district, may develop a
   47  basin management action plan that addresses some or all of the
   48  watersheds and basins tributary to the water body. Such plan
   49  must integrate the appropriate management strategies available
   50  to the state through existing water quality protection programs
   51  to achieve the total maximum daily loads and may provide for
   52  phased implementation of these management strategies to promote
   53  timely, cost-effective actions as provided for in s. 403.151.
   54  The plan must establish a schedule implementing the management
   55  strategies, establish a basis for evaluating the plan’s
   56  effectiveness, and identify feasible funding strategies for
   57  implementing the plan’s management strategies. The management
   58  strategies may include regional treatment systems or other
   59  public works, when appropriate, and voluntary trading of water
   60  quality credits to achieve the needed pollutant load reductions.
   61         2. A basin management action plan must equitably allocate,
   62  pursuant to paragraph (6)(b), pollutant reductions to individual
   63  basins, as a whole to all basins, or to each identified point
   64  source or category of nonpoint sources, as appropriate. For
   65  nonpoint sources for which best management practices have been
   66  adopted, the initial requirement specified by the plan must be
   67  those practices developed pursuant to paragraph (c). When
   68  appropriate, the plan may take into account the benefits of
   69  pollutant load reduction achieved by point or nonpoint sources
   70  that have implemented management strategies to reduce pollutant
   71  loads, including best management practices, before the
   72  development of the basin management action plan. The plan must
   73  also identify the mechanisms that will address potential future
   74  increases in pollutant loading.
   75         3. The basin management action planning process is intended
   76  to involve the broadest possible range of interested parties,
   77  with the objective of encouraging the greatest amount of
   78  cooperation and consensus possible. In developing a basin
   79  management action plan, the department shall assure that key
   80  stakeholders, including, but not limited to, applicable local
   81  governments, water management districts, the Department of
   82  Agriculture and Consumer Services, other appropriate state
   83  agencies, local soil and water conservation districts,
   84  environmental groups, regulated interests, and affected
   85  pollution sources, are invited to participate in the process.
   86  The department shall hold at least one public meeting in the
   87  vicinity of the watershed or basin to discuss and receive
   88  comments during the planning process and shall otherwise
   89  encourage public participation to the greatest practicable
   90  extent. Notice of the public meeting must be published in a
   91  newspaper of general circulation in each county in which the
   92  watershed or basin lies at least 5 days, but not more than 15
   93  days, before the public meeting. A basin management action plan
   94  does not supplant or otherwise alter any assessment made under
   95  subsection (3) or subsection (4) or any calculation or initial
   96  allocation.
   97         4.a. Each new or revised basin management action plan shall
   98  include:
   99         (I)a. The appropriate management strategies available
  100  through existing water quality protection programs to achieve
  101  total maximum daily loads, which may provide for phased
  102  implementation to promote timely, cost-effective actions as
  103  provided for in s. 403.151;
  104         (II)b. A description of best management practices adopted
  105  by rule;
  106         (III)c. A list of projects in priority ranking with a
  107  planning-level cost estimate and estimated date of completion
  108  for each listed project;
  109         (IV)Identification and prioritization of spatially focused
  110  suites of projects in areas likely to yield maximum pollutant
  111  reductions;
  112         (V)d. The source and amount of financial assistance to be
  113  made available by the department, a water management district,
  114  or other entity for each listed project, if applicable; and
  115         (VI)e. A planning-level estimate of each listed project’s
  116  expected load reduction, if applicable.
  117         b.For each project listed pursuant to this subparagraph
  118  which has a total cost that exceeds $1 million, the department
  119  shall assess through integrated and comprehensive monitoring
  120  whether the project is working to reduce nutrient pollution or
  121  water use, or both, as intended. These assessments must be
  122  completed expeditiously and must be included in each basin
  123  management action plan update.
  124         5. The department shall adopt all or any part of a basin
  125  management action plan and any amendment to such plan by
  126  secretarial order pursuant to chapter 120 to implement this
  127  section.
  128         6. The basin management action plan must include milestones
  129  for implementation and water quality improvement, and an
  130  associated water quality monitoring component sufficient to
  131  evaluate whether reasonable progress in pollutant load
  132  reductions is being achieved over time. An assessment of
  133  progress toward these milestones shall be conducted every 5
  134  years, and revisions to the plan shall be made as appropriate.
  135  Revisions to the basin management action plan shall be made by
  136  the department in cooperation with basin stakeholders. Revisions
  137  to the management strategies required for nonpoint sources must
  138  follow the procedures in subparagraph (c)4. Revised basin
  139  management action plans must be adopted pursuant to subparagraph
  140  5.
  141         7. In accordance with procedures adopted by rule under
  142  paragraph (9)(c), basin management action plans, and other
  143  pollution control programs under local, state, or federal
  144  authority as provided in subsection (4), may allow point or
  145  nonpoint sources that will achieve greater pollutant reductions
  146  than required by an adopted total maximum daily load or
  147  wasteload allocation to generate, register, and trade water
  148  quality credits for the excess reductions to enable other
  149  sources to achieve their allocation; however, the generation of
  150  water quality credits does not remove the obligation of a source
  151  or activity to meet applicable technology requirements or
  152  adopted best management practices. Such plans must allow trading
  153  between NPDES permittees, and trading that may or may not
  154  involve NPDES permittees, where the generation or use of the
  155  credits involve an entity or activity not subject to department
  156  water discharge permits whose owner voluntarily elects to obtain
  157  department authorization for the generation and sale of credits.
  158         8. The department’s rule relating to the equitable
  159  abatement of pollutants into surface waters do not apply to
  160  water bodies or water body segments for which a basin management
  161  plan that takes into account future new or expanded activities
  162  or discharges has been adopted under this section.
  163         9. In order to promote resilient wastewater utilities, if
  164  the department identifies domestic wastewater treatment
  165  facilities or onsite sewage treatment and disposal systems as
  166  contributors of at least 20 percent of point source or nonpoint
  167  source nutrient pollution or if the department determines
  168  remediation is necessary to achieve the total maximum daily
  169  load, a basin management action plan for a nutrient total
  170  maximum daily load must include the following:
  171         a. A wastewater treatment plan developed by each local
  172  government, in cooperation with the department, the water
  173  management district, and the public and private domestic
  174  wastewater treatment facilities within the jurisdiction of the
  175  local government, that addresses domestic wastewater. The
  176  wastewater treatment plan must:
  177         (I) Provide for construction, expansion, or upgrades
  178  necessary to achieve the total maximum daily load requirements
  179  applicable to the domestic wastewater treatment facility.
  180         (II) Include the permitted capacity in average annual
  181  gallons per day for the domestic wastewater treatment facility;
  182  the average nutrient concentration and the estimated average
  183  nutrient load of the domestic wastewater; a projected timeline
  184  of the dates by which the construction of any facility
  185  improvements will begin and be completed and the date by which
  186  operations of the improved facility will begin; the estimated
  187  cost of the improvements; and the identity of responsible
  188  parties.
  189  
  190         The wastewater treatment plan must be adopted as part of
  191  the basin management action plan no later than July 1, 2025. A
  192  local government that does not have a domestic wastewater
  193  treatment facility in its jurisdiction is not required to
  194  develop a wastewater treatment plan unless there is a
  195  demonstrated need to establish a domestic wastewater treatment
  196  facility within its jurisdiction to improve water quality
  197  necessary to achieve a total maximum daily load. A local
  198  government is not responsible for a private domestic wastewater
  199  facility’s compliance with a basin management action plan unless
  200  such facility is operated through a public-private partnership
  201  to which the local government is a party.
  202         b. An onsite sewage treatment and disposal system
  203  remediation plan developed by each local government in
  204  cooperation with the department, the Department of Health, water
  205  management districts, and public and private domestic wastewater
  206  treatment facilities.
  207         (I) The onsite sewage treatment and disposal system
  208  remediation plan must identify cost-effective and financially
  209  feasible projects necessary to achieve the nutrient load
  210  reductions required for onsite sewage treatment and disposal
  211  systems. To identify cost-effective and financially feasible
  212  projects for remediation of onsite sewage treatment and disposal
  213  systems, the local government shall:
  214         (A) Include an inventory of onsite sewage treatment and
  215  disposal systems based on the best information available;
  216         (B) Identify onsite sewage treatment and disposal systems
  217  that would be eliminated through connection to existing or
  218  future central domestic wastewater infrastructure in the
  219  jurisdiction or domestic wastewater service area of the local
  220  government, that would be replaced with or upgraded to enhanced
  221  nutrient-reducing onsite sewage treatment and disposal systems,
  222  or that would remain on conventional onsite sewage treatment and
  223  disposal systems;
  224         (C) Estimate the costs of potential onsite sewage treatment
  225  and disposal system connections, upgrades, or replacements; and
  226         (D) Identify deadlines and interim milestones for the
  227  planning, design, and construction of projects.
  228         (II) The department shall adopt the onsite sewage treatment
  229  and disposal system remediation plan as part of the basin
  230  management action plan no later than July 1, 2025, or as
  231  required for Outstanding Florida Springs under s. 373.807.
  232         10. When identifying wastewater projects in a basin
  233  management action plan, the department may not require the
  234  higher cost option if it achieves the same nutrient load
  235  reduction as a lower cost option. A regulated entity may choose
  236  a different cost option if it complies with the pollutant
  237  reduction requirements of an adopted total maximum daily load
  238  and meets or exceeds the pollution reduction requirement of the
  239  original project.
  240         Section 4. This act shall take effect July 1, 2021.
  241  
  242  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
  243  And the title is amended as follows:
  244         Delete everything before the enacting clause
  245  and insert:
  246                        A bill to be entitled                      
  247         An act relating to implementation of the
  248         recommendations of the Blue-Green Algae Task Force;
  249         providing a short title; amending s. 381.0065, F.S.;
  250         requiring owners of onsite sewage treatment and
  251         disposal systems to have the system periodically
  252         inspected, beginning on a specified date; requiring
  253         the department to administer the inspection program;
  254         requiring the department to implement program
  255         standards, procedures, and requirements; providing for
  256         rulemaking; amending s. 403.067, F.S.; requiring new
  257         or revised basin management action plans to include an
  258         identification and prioritization of certain spatially
  259         focused projects; requiring the department to assess
  260         certain projects; providing an effective date.
  261  
  262         WHEREAS, Governor Ron DeSantis created the Blue-Green Algae
  263  Task Force in 2019, to “improve water quality for the benefit of
  264  all Floridians,” and the task force’s consensus report was
  265  issued in October 2019, with multiple recommendations for basin
  266  management action plans (BMAP), agriculture, human waste,
  267  stormwater, technology, public health, and science, and
  268         WHEREAS, the Legislature recognizes that in June 2020,
  269  Governor DeSantis signed SB 712, the Clean Waterways Act, which
  270  implemented many of the recommendations of the task force, and
  271  WHEREAS, full implementation of the task force’s
  272  recommendations will require enactment of additional
  273  substantive legislation, NOW, THEREFORE,