Florida Senate - 2009                                    SB 1458
       
       
       
       By Senator Constantine
       
       
       
       
       22-01431-09                                           20091458__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to Everglades restoration; amending s.
    3         373.4592, F.S.; deleting an obsolete provision
    4         relating to a report by the South Florida Water
    5         Management District and the Department of
    6         Environmental Protection on the research and
    7         monitoring program within the Everglades Protection
    8         Area; providing an effective date.
    9         
   10  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   11         
   12         Section 1. Paragraph (d) of subsection (4) of section
   13  373.4592, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
   14         373.4592 Everglades improvement and management.—
   15         (4) EVERGLADES PROGRAM.—
   16         (d) Everglades research and monitoring program.—
   17         1. The department and the district shall review and
   18  evaluate available water quality data for the Everglades
   19  Protection Area and tributary waters and identify any additional
   20  information necessary to adequately describe water quality in
   21  the Everglades Protection Area and tributary waters. The
   22  department and the district shall also initiate a research and
   23  monitoring program to generate such additional information
   24  identified and to evaluate the effectiveness of the BMPs and
   25  STAs, as they are implemented, in improving water quality and
   26  maintaining designated and existing beneficial uses of the
   27  Everglades Protection Area and tributary waters. As part of the
   28  program, the district shall monitor all discharges into the
   29  Everglades Protection Area for purposes of determining
   30  compliance with state water quality standards.
   31         2. The research and monitoring program shall evaluate the
   32  ecological and hydrological needs of the Everglades Protection
   33  Area, including the minimum flows and levels. Consistent with
   34  such needs, the program shall also evaluate water quality
   35  standards for the Everglades Protection Area and for the canals
   36  of the EAA, so that these canals can be classified in the manner
   37  set forth in paragraph (e) and protected as an integral part of
   38  the water management system which includes the STAs of the
   39  Everglades Construction Project and allows landowners in the EAA
   40  to achieve applicable water quality standards compliance by BMPs
   41  and STA treatment to the extent this treatment is available and
   42  effective.
   43         3. The research and monitoring program shall include
   44  research seeking to optimize the design and operation of the
   45  STAs, including research to reduce outflow concentrations, and
   46  to identify other treatment and management methods and
   47  regulatory programs that are superior to STAs in achieving the
   48  intent and purposes of this section.
   49         4. The research and monitoring program shall be conducted
   50  to allow the department to propose a phosphorus criterion in the
   51  Everglades Protection Area, and to evaluate existing state water
   52  quality standards applicable to the Everglades Protection Area
   53  and existing state water quality standards and classifications
   54  applicable to the EAA canals. In developing the phosphorus
   55  criterion, the department shall also consider the minimum flows
   56  and levels for the Everglades Protection Area and the district's
   57  water supply plans for the Lower East Coast.
   58         5. Beginning March 1, 2006, As part of the consolidated
   59  annual report required by s. 373.036(7), the district and the
   60  department shall annually issue a peer-reviewed report regarding
   61  the research and monitoring program that summarizes all data and
   62  findings. The report shall identify water quality parameters, in
   63  addition to phosphorus, which exceed state water quality
   64  standards or are causing or contributing to adverse impacts in
   65  the Everglades Protection Area.
   66         6. The district shall continue research seeking to optimize
   67  the design and operation of STAs and to identify other treatment
   68  and management methods that are superior to STAs in achieving
   69  optimum water quality and water quantity for the benefit of the
   70  Everglades. The district shall optimize the design and operation
   71  of the STAs described in the Everglades Construction Project
   72  prior to expanding their size. Additional methods to achieve
   73  compliance with water quality standards shall not be limited to
   74  more intensive management of the STAs.
   75         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2009.