Senate Bill sb1492
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Florida Senate - 2002 SB 1492
By Senator Campbell
33-115-02
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to water resources; amending s.
3 373.1501, F.S.; providing for restrictions on
4 the sale or transfer of water rights; creating
5 s. 373.255, F.S.; providing for restrictions on
6 permits for the consumptive use of water;
7 providing an effective date.
8
9 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
10
11 Section 1. Present subsection (8) of section 373.1501,
12 Florida Statutes, is redesignated as subsection (9), and a new
13 subsection (8) is added to that section, to read:
14 373.1501 South Florida Water Management District as
15 local sponsor.--
16 (8) Ownership rights to any water may not be conveyed
17 to a private person, including any right to sell or resell
18 water to other private persons or governmental entities, nor
19 may consumptive-use-permit rights to resell water be granted
20 to private or governmental persons in return for investment or
21 participation in any project component of the restudy.
22 Section 2. Section 373.255, Florida Statutes, is
23 created to read:
24 373.255 Consumptive-use permits; restrictions.--
25 (1) The Legislature finds that:
26 (a) Water is a natural resource that is essential to
27 the economic health of the state and should remain as a
28 publicly owned and controlled resource;
29 (b) Private market economic forces acting on the
30 supply and allocation of water may not at all times operate
31 consistently with the best interests of the public at large,
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Florida Senate - 2002 SB 1492
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1 the natural environment, and the state's industries and
2 agriculture; and
3 (c) The role of water management districts in ensuring
4 that use of the state's water supply is consistent with the
5 immediate and long-term best interest of the public should be
6 preserved, notwithstanding benefits that may be derived from
7 any use of private market forces in the water supply which is
8 otherwise authorized by the Legislature.
9 (2) As used in this section, the term:
10 (a) "Permitted quantity" means the amount of water
11 which a user is allowed to withdraw under a permit issued by a
12 water management district, whether the withdrawals under the
13 permit are from the same or different wellheads or
14 surface-water withdrawal locations.
15 (b) "Permittee" means a user who has a valid
16 consumptive water-use permit.
17 (c) "Proposed transferred permittee" means a user who
18 seeks to receive the transfer of all or part of the permitted
19 quantity from a permitted user.
20 (3) A permittee may not sell or transfer any rights it
21 has under a consumptive-use permit, including any portion of a
22 permitted quantity, to a proposed transferred permittee. Any
23 attempted sale or transfer of a permitted quantity must be
24 considered a new use by the proposed transferred permittee for
25 which application for a new consumptive use permit is
26 required.
27 (4) The sale of any property to which a
28 consumptive-use permit relates does not constitute a proposed
29 transfer or new use within the meaning of this section.
30 (5) A proposed transferred permittee must apply for a
31 new consumptive-use permit as to any part of the permitted
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Florida Senate - 2002 SB 1492
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1 quantity, and the transfer does not create any presumption of
2 entitlement to a consumptive-use permit or to any particular
3 terms that applied to an original permit, permittee, or
4 permitted quantity.
5 (6) An application for a new consumptive-use permit
6 sought by a proposed transferred permittee must be evaluated
7 based upon conditions as they exist at the time of the
8 application. Conditions may be imposed on any permit issued to
9 the proposed transferred permittee which were not previously
10 imposed on the existing permittee.
11 (7) Water management districts may not authorize the
12 sale or transfer of a permit or of any rights under a permit
13 to a permitted quantity in any manner inconsistent with this
14 section.
15 (8) Water management districts may adopt rules to
16 implement this section.
17 Section 3. If any provision of this act or the
18 application thereof to any person or circumstance is held to
19 be invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or
20 applications of the act which can be given effect without the
21 invalid provision or application, and, to this end, the
22 provisions of this act are declared severable.
23 Section 4. This act shall take effect upon becoming a
24 law.
25
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27 SENATE SUMMARY
28 Provides restrictions on the sale or transfer of water
resources.
29
30
31
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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.