Senate Bill 0736

    Florida Senate - 1999                                   SB 736

    By Senator Bronson





    18-603-99

  1                      A bill to be entitled

  2         An act relating to environmental mitigation;

  3         amending s. 373.4137, F.S.; providing for the

  4         admissibility of specified costs in cases

  5         involving Department of Transportation

  6         mitigation projects; providing an effective

  7         date.

  8

  9  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

10

11         Section 1.  Subsection (3) of section 373.4137, Florida

12  Statutes, is amended to read:

13         373.4137  Mitigation requirements.--

14         (3)  To fund the mitigation plan for the projected

15  impacts identified in the inventory described in subsection

16  (2), beginning July 1, 1997, the Department of Transportation

17  shall identify funds quarterly in an escrow account within the

18  State Transportation Trust Fund established by the Department

19  of Transportation for the benefit of the Department of

20  Environmental Protection.  Any interest earnings from the

21  escrow account shall be returned to the Department of

22  Transportation.  The Department of Environmental Protection

23  shall request a transfer of funds from the escrow account to

24  the Ecosystem Management and Restoration Trust Fund no sooner

25  than 30 days prior to the date the funds are needed to pay for

26  activities contained in the mitigation programs.  The amount

27  transferred each year by the Department of Transportation

28  shall correspond to a cost per acre of $75,000 multiplied by

29  the projected acres of impact identified in the inventory

30  described in subsection (2) within the water management

31  district for that year.  However, the $75,000 cost per acre

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






    Florida Senate - 1999                                   SB 736
    18-603-99




  1  does not constitute an admission against interest against the

  2  state or its subdivisions nor is the cost admissible as

  3  evidence of full compensation for any property acquired by

  4  eminent domain or through inverse condemnation. The water

  5  management district may draw from the trust fund no sooner

  6  than 30 days prior to the date funds are needed to pay for

  7  activities associated with development or implementation of

  8  the mitigation plan described in subsection (4).  Each July 1,

  9  beginning in 1998, the cost per acre shall be adjusted by the

10  percentage change in the average of the Consumer Price Index

11  issued by the United States Department of Labor for the most

12  recent 12-month period ending September 30, compared to the

13  base year average, which is the average for the 12-month

14  period ending September 30, 1996.  At the end of each year,

15  the projected acreage of impact shall be reconciled with the

16  acreage of impact of projects as permitted pursuant to this

17  part and s. 404 of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. s. 1344, and

18  the following year's transfer of funds shall be adjusted

19  accordingly to reflect the overtransfer or undertransfer of

20  funds from the preceding year. The Department of Environmental

21  Protection is authorized to transfer such funds from the

22  Ecosystem Management and Restoration Trust Fund to the water

23  management districts to carry out the mitigation programs.

24         Section 2.  This act shall take effect upon becoming a

25  law.

26

27            *****************************************

28                          SENATE SUMMARY

29    Provides for the admissibility of specific costs in
      judicial proceedings involving environmental mitigation
30    projects of the Department of Transportation.

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