| 1 | A bill to be entitled |
| 2 | An act relating to numeric nutrient water quality |
| 3 | criteria; creating s. 403.0675, F.S.; prohibiting the |
| 4 | implementation of certain federal numeric nutrient water |
| 5 | quality criteria rules by the Department of Environmental |
| 6 | Protection, water management districts, and local |
| 7 | governmental entities; authorizing the department to adopt |
| 8 | numeric nutrient water quality criteria for surface waters |
| 9 | under certain conditions; providing that certain total |
| 10 | maximum daily loads and associated numeric interpretations |
| 11 | constitute site specific numeric nutrient water quality |
| 12 | criteria; providing for effect, governance, and challenge |
| 13 | of such criteria; providing an effective date. |
| 14 |
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| 15 | WHEREAS, the United States Environmental Protection |
| 16 | Agency's numeric nutrient water quality criteria rules for |
| 17 | Florida's lakes and flowing waters, finalized on December 6, |
| 18 | 2010, and published in Volume 75, No. 233 of the Federal |
| 19 | Register, lack adequate scientific support and fail to take into |
| 20 | account the unique characteristics of the state's many thousands |
| 21 | of rivers, streams, and lakes, and |
| 22 | WHEREAS, the final numeric nutrient water quality criteria |
| 23 | rules fail to incorporate and actually undermine the state's |
| 24 | science-based nutrient water quality programs, including the |
| 25 | total maximum daily loads program, and |
| 26 | WHEREAS, the federal agency declined to subject its |
| 27 | unprecedented, Florida-only numeric nutrient water quality |
| 28 | criteria rules to an independent scientific peer review or |
| 29 | economic analysis, and |
| 30 | WHEREAS, implementation of the numeric nutrient water |
| 31 | quality criteria rules would have severe economic consequences |
| 32 | on the state's agriculture, local governments, wastewater |
| 33 | utilities, economically vital industries, small businesses, and |
| 34 | residents living below the poverty level or on fixed incomes, |
| 35 | and |
| 36 | WHEREAS, implementation of the federal agency's numeric |
| 37 | nutrient water quality criteria rules would require Floridians |
| 38 | to needlessly expend resources pursuing numerous exemptions, |
| 39 | variances, and other relief mechanisms made necessary by the |
| 40 | scientific flaws underlying the federal agency's criteria, |
| 41 | consequently resulting in the delay of restoration projects that |
| 42 | are already underway in the total maximum daily loads program |
| 43 | and other water quality programs, and |
| 44 | WHEREAS, the Clean Water Act grants the State of Florida |
| 45 | primacy in protecting state waters from pollution, and the |
| 46 | federal agency's numeric nutrient water quality criteria |
| 47 | rulemaking undermines this cooperative federalism structure, |
| 48 | NOW, THEREFORE, |
| 49 |
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| 50 | Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: |
| 51 |
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| 52 | Section 1. Section 403.0675, Florida Statutes, is created |
| 53 | to read: |
| 54 | 403.0675 Numeric nutrient water quality criteria.- |
| 55 | (1) The department, water management districts, and all |
| 56 | other state, regional, and local governmental entities may not |
| 57 | implement or give any effect to the United States Environmental |
| 58 | Protection Agency's nutrient water quality criteria rules for |
| 59 | the state's lakes and flowing waters, finalized on December 6, |
| 60 | 2010, and published in Volume 75, No. 233 of the Federal |
| 61 | Register, in any program administered by the department, water |
| 62 | management district, or governmental entity. |
| 63 | (2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), the department may |
| 64 | adopt numeric nutrient water quality criteria for a particular |
| 65 | surface water or class of surface waters if the department |
| 66 | determines that such criteria are necessary based on historic |
| 67 | and projected nutrient loading trends, existing and forthcoming |
| 68 | technology-based nutrient reduction measures, and existing and |
| 69 | forthcoming water quality restoration and protection programs |
| 70 | applicable to the surface water or class of surface waters. The |
| 71 | numeric nutrient water quality criteria adopted pursuant to this |
| 72 | subsection: |
| 73 | (a) Shall be established at the nutrient levels at which |
| 74 | the water bodies will exhibit imbalances of naturally occurring |
| 75 | populations of flora and fauna based on a cause and effect |
| 76 | relationship between nutrient levels and biological responses. |
| 77 | (b) May be expressed in terms of concentration, mass |
| 78 | loading, load allocation, and surrogate standards, such as |
| 79 | chlorophyll-a, and may be supplemented by narrative statements. |
| 80 | (c) Shall be subject to s. 120.541. |
| 81 | (3)(a) Numeric nutrient total maximum daily loads and |
| 82 | associated numeric interpretations of the narrative nutrient |
| 83 | criterion, whether total nitrogen, total phosphorus, |
| 84 | nitrate/nitrite, or a surrogate nutrient standard, such as |
| 85 | chlorophyll-a, biological demand, or specific biological metric, |
| 86 | developed by the department and approved by the United States |
| 87 | Environmental Protection Agency as of December 6, 2010, |
| 88 | constitute site specific numeric nutrient water quality |
| 89 | criteria. |
| 90 | (b) The site specific numeric nutrient water quality |
| 91 | criteria established pursuant to this subsection are: |
| 92 | 1. Not effective if the United States Environmental |
| 93 | Protection Agency disapproves, approves in part, or conditions |
| 94 | its approval of the criteria. |
| 95 | 2. Subject to s. 403.067, including any rules or orders |
| 96 | issued thereunder, and to challenge under s. 120.56(3). |
| 97 | Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2011. |