Florida Senate - 2020 CS for SB 1656
By the Committee on Innovation, Industry, and Technology; and
Senator Albritton
580-03001-20 20201656c1
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to reclaimed water; amending s.
3 403.064, F.S.; prohibiting domestic wastewater
4 treatment facilities from disposing of effluent,
5 reclaimed water, or reuse water by surface water
6 discharge beginning on a specified date; providing
7 exceptions; creating s. 403.8531, F.S.; providing
8 legislative intent; defining terms; providing that
9 reclaimed water is a water source for public water
10 supply systems; providing specified groundwater and
11 surface water quality protections for potable reuse
12 projects; providing that potable reuse is an
13 alternative water supply and that projects relating to
14 such reuse are eligible for alternative water supply
15 funding; requiring the Department of Environmental
16 Protection to adopt specified rules; requiring the
17 department to review reclaimed water and potable reuse
18 rules and revise them as necessary; requiring the
19 department to review aquifer recharge rules and revise
20 them as necessary; requiring the department to
21 initiate rulemaking and to submit such rules to the
22 Legislature for approval by specified dates; requiring
23 the department and the water management districts to
24 develop and execute, by a specified date, a memorandum
25 of agreement for the coordinated review of specified
26 permits; providing that potable reuse projects are
27 eligible for certain expedited permitting and tax
28 credits; providing construction; creating s. 403.892,
29 F.S.; defining terms; requiring counties,
30 municipalities, and special districts to authorize
31 graywater technologies under certain circumstances and
32 to provide incentives for the implementation of such
33 technologies; requiring the department to adopt rules
34 for the implementation of potable reuse projects which
35 meet certain requirements; requiring the department to
36 convene at least one technical advisory committee for
37 specified purposes; providing for the composition of
38 the technical advisory committee; providing for the
39 applicability of specified reclaimed water aquifer
40 storage and recovery well requirements; providing a
41 directive to the Division of Law Revision; providing a
42 declaration of important state interest; providing an
43 effective date.
44
45 WHEREAS, sustainable water supplies are important to this
46 state’s economy, environment, and quality of life, and
47 WHEREAS, in 2019, Floridians used nearly 6.5 billion
48 gallons of water per day and are projected to need an additional
49 1.1 billion gallons of water per day by 2035, and
50 WHEREAS, more than 75 percent of this state’s water supply
51 comes from groundwater, and the availability of additional fresh
52 groundwater has become limited in many areas of this state, and
53 WHEREAS, this state’s continued growth and economic success
54 depend on the implementation of safe and sustainable alternative
55 water supplies, and
56 WHEREAS, the use of reclaimed water is an important
57 component of both wastewater management and water resource
58 management in this state, and
59 WHEREAS, in 2018, approximately 48 percent of the total
60 domestic wastewater flow in this state, 797 million gallons per
61 day, was reused for beneficial purposes, and
62 WHEREAS, the reuse of water is a critical component of
63 meeting this state’s existing and future water supply needs, and
64 WHEREAS, potable reuse is the augmentation of a drinking
65 water supply with reclaimed water from a municipal wastewater
66 source and is an alternative water supply source that can be
67 harnessed to help meet the additional water needs of this state
68 while protecting both the public health and the environment, and
69 WHEREAS, the Legislature finds that through the use of
70 advanced treatment technology, potable reuse is a safe and
71 sustainable alternative water supply source that can be used to
72 support a diverse, resilient, and sustainable water supply
73 portfolio, and is considered to be in the public interest, and
74 WHEREAS, potable reuse projects, when implemented in a
75 properly planned way using current environmental and engineered
76 treatment processes, have reduced, and will continue to reduce,
77 this state’s dependence on increased withdrawals from
78 groundwater and surface water sources, pollutant loadings to
79 waters of the state, and the nonbeneficial use of reclaimed
80 water, thus improving water quality and benefitting the
81 environment and local economies that depend on this state’s
82 natural resources, NOW, THEREFORE,
83
84 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
85
86 Section 1. Subsection (17) is added to section 403.064,
87 Florida Statutes, to read:
88 403.064 Reuse of reclaimed water.—
89 (17) Notwithstanding any other provisions in this section
90 to the contrary, beginning January 1, 2026, domestic wastewater
91 treatment facilities may not dispose of effluent, reclaimed
92 water, or reuse water by surface water discharge, except that
93 this prohibition does not apply to indirect potable reuse
94 projects; domestic wastewater treatment facility discharges
95 during wet weather which occur in accordance with the applicable
96 department permit; discharges into a stormwater management
97 system which are subsequently withdrawn by a user for irrigation
98 purposes; domestic wastewater treatment facilities located in
99 fiscally constrained counties as defined in s. 218.67(1);
100 projects where reclaimed water is recovered from an aquifer
101 recharge system and subsequently discharged into a surface water
102 for potable reuse; wetlands creation, restoration, and
103 enhancement projects; minimum flows and levels recovery or
104 prevention strategy plan projects; domestic wastewater treatment
105 facilities with reuse systems that provide a minimum of 90
106 percent of a facility’s annual average flow, as determined by
107 the department using monitoring data for the prior 5 consecutive
108 years, for reuse purposes authorized by the department; domestic
109 wastewater treatment facilities located in municipalities that
110 have less than $10 million in total revenue, as determined by
111 the most recent annual financial report submitted to the
112 Department of Financial Services in accordance with s. 218.32;
113 or domestic wastewater treatment facilities located in
114 municipalities that are entirely within a rural area of
115 opportunity designated under s. 288.0656.
116 Section 2. Section 403.8531, Florida Statutes, is created
117 to read:
118 403.8531 Potable reuse.—
119 (1) Recognizing that sufficient water supply is imperative
120 to the future of this state and that potable reuse is one source
121 of water which may assist in meeting future demands, the
122 Legislature intends for the department to adopt rules for
123 potable reuse which:
124 (a) Protect the public health and environment by ensuring
125 that the potable reuse rules meet federal and state drinking
126 water and water quality standards, including, but not limited
127 to, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and water
128 quality standards pursuant to chapter 403, and, when possible,
129 implement such rules through existing regulatory programs.
130 (b) Support reclaimed water being used for potable reuse
131 purposes.
132 (c) Implement the recommendations set forth in the Potable
133 Reuse Commission’s 2020 report “Advancing Potable Reuse in
134 Florida: Framework for the Implementation of Potable Reuse in
135 Florida.”
136 (d) Require that the point of compliance with drinking
137 water standards for potable reuse projects is the final
138 discharge point for finished water from the water treatment
139 facility.
140 (e) Protect the aquifer and Florida’s springs and surface
141 waters by ensuring that potable reuse projects do not cause or
142 contribute to violations of water quality standards in surface
143 waters, including groundwater discharges that flow by interflow
144 and affect water quality in surface waters, and that potable
145 reuse projects shall be designed and operated to ensure
146 compliance with groundwater quality standards.
147 (2) As used in this section, the term:
148 (a) “Advanced treated reclaimed water” means the water
149 produced from an advanced water treatment process for potable
150 reuse applications.
151 (b) “Advanced treatment technology” means the treatment
152 technology selected by a utility to address emerging
153 constituents and pathogens in reclaimed water as part of a
154 potable reuse project.
155 (c) “Direct potable reuse” means the introduction of
156 advanced treated reclaimed water into a raw water supply
157 immediately upstream from a drinking water treatment facility or
158 directly into a potable water supply distribution system.
159 (d) “Emerging constituents” means pharmaceuticals, personal
160 care products, and other chemicals not regulated as part of
161 drinking water quality standards.
162 (e) “Indirect potable reuse” means the planned delivery or
163 discharge of reclaimed water to groundwater or surface waters
164 for the development of, or to supplement, the potable water
165 supply.
166 (f) “Off-spec reclaimed water” means reclaimed water that
167 does not meet the standards for potable reuse.
168 (g) “Potable reuse” means the augmentation of a drinking
169 water supply with advanced treated reclaimed water from a
170 domestic wastewater treatment facility, and consists of direct
171 potable reuse and indirect potable reuse.
172 (h) “Reclaimed water” means water that has received at
173 least secondary treatment and basic disinfection and is reused
174 after flowing out of a domestic wastewater treatment facility.
175 (3) To comply with drinking water quality standards,
176 reclaimed water is deemed a water source for public water supply
177 systems.
178 (4) Existing water quality protections that prohibit
179 discharges from causing or contributing to violations of water
180 quality standards in groundwater and surface waters apply to
181 potable reuse projects. In addition, when reclaimed water is
182 released or discharged into groundwater or surface water for
183 potable reuse purposes, there shall be a consideration of
184 emerging constituents and impacts to other users of such
185 groundwater or surface water.
186 (5) Potable reuse is an alternative water supply as defined
187 in s. 373.019, and potable reuse projects are eligible for
188 alternative water supply funding. The use of potable reuse water
189 may not be excluded from regional water supply planning under s.
190 373.709.
191 (6) The department shall:
192 (a) Adopt rules that authorize potable reuse projects that
193 are consistent with this section.
194 (b) Review existing rules governing reclaimed water and
195 potable reuse to identify obsolete and inconsistent requirements
196 and adopt rules that revise existing potable reuse rules to
197 eliminate such inconsistencies, while maintaining existing
198 public health and environmental protections.
199 (c) Review aquifer recharge rules and, if revisions are
200 necessary to ensure continued compliance with existing public
201 health and environmental protection rules when reclaimed water
202 is used for aquifer recharge, adopt such rules.
203 (d) Initiate rulemaking by December 31, 2020, and submit
204 the adopted rules to the President of the Senate and the Speaker
205 of the House of Representatives by December 12, 2021, for
206 approval and incorporation into chapter 403 by the Legislature.
207 Such rules may not be published as administrative rules by the
208 department.
209 (7) The department and the water management districts shall
210 develop and execute a memorandum of agreement providing for the
211 procedural requirements of a coordinated review of all permits
212 associated with the construction and operation of an indirect
213 potable reuse project. The memorandum of agreement must provide
214 that the coordinated review will occur only if requested by a
215 permittee. The purpose of the coordinated review is to share
216 information, to avoid the redundancy of information requested
217 from the permittee, and to ensure consistency in the permit for
218 the protection of the public health and the environment. The
219 department and the water management districts shall develop and
220 execute the memorandum of agreement by December 31, 2022.
221 (8) To encourage investment in the development of potable
222 reuse projects by private entities, a potable reuse project
223 developed as a qualifying project pursuant to s. 255.065 is:
224 (a) Beginning January 1, 2025, eligible for expedited
225 permitting under s. 403.973.
226 (b) Granted an annual credit against the tax imposed by
227 chapter 220 in an amount equal to 5 percent of the eligible
228 capital costs generated by a qualifying project for a period not
229 to exceed 20 years after the date that project operations begin.
230 The tax credit applies only to the corporate income tax
231 liability or the premium tax liability generated by or arising
232 out of the qualifying project, and the sum of all tax credits
233 provided pursuant to this section may not exceed 100 percent of
234 the eligible capital costs as defined in s. 220.191(1)(c). Any
235 credit granted pursuant to this paragraph may not be carried
236 forward or backward.
237 (c) Granted a 3-year extension of any deadlines imposed
238 under s. 403.064(17).
239 (d) Consistent with s. 373.707, eligible for priority
240 funding in the same manner as other alternative water supply
241 projects from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, under the
242 Water Protection and Sustainability Program, and for water
243 management district cooperative funding.
244 (9) This section is not intended and may not be construed
245 to supersede s. 373.250(3).
246 Section 3. Section 403.892, Florida Statutes, is created to
247 read:
248 403.892 Incentives for the use of graywater technologies.—
249 (1) As used in this section, the term:
250 (a) “Developer” has the same meaning as in s. 380.031.
251 (b) “Graywater” has the same meaning as in s.
252 381.0065(2)(e).
253 (2) To promote the beneficial reuse of water in this state,
254 a county, municipality, or special district shall do all of the
255 following:
256 (a) Authorize the use of residential graywater technologies
257 in their respective jurisdictions which comply with the Florida
258 Building Code; and
259 (b) Provide incentives to developers to fully offset the
260 costs of their beneficial reuse of water contribution through
261 graywater technology. Such incentives may include, but are not
262 limited to:
263 1. Allowing the developer density or intensity bonus
264 incentives or more floor space than allowed under the current or
265 proposed future land use designation or zoning;
266 2. Reducing or waiving fees, such as impact fees or water
267 and sewer charges; or
268 3. Granting other incentives.
269 (3) If the local government has already applied one of the
270 incentives identified in paragraph (2)(b) to the development,
271 the local government must provide the developer with an
272 additional incentive identified in paragraph (2)(b) to meet the
273 requirements of this section.
274 Section 4. (1) In implementing s. 403.8531, Florida
275 Statutes, as created by this act, the Department of
276 Environmental Protection, in coordination with one or more
277 technical working groups pursuant to subsection (2), shall adopt
278 rules for the implementation of potable reuse projects. The
279 department shall:
280 (a) Revise the appropriate chapters in the Florida
281 Administrative Code, including chapter 62-610, Florida
282 Administrative Code, to ensure that all rules implementing
283 potable reuse are in the Florida Administrative Code division 62
284 governing drinking water regulation.
285 (b) Revise existing drinking water rules to include
286 reclaimed water as a source water for the public water supply
287 and require such treatment of the water as is necessary to meet
288 existing drinking water rules, including rules for pathogens.
289 The potable reuse rules must include the implementation of a log
290 reduction credit system using advanced treatment technology to
291 meet pathogen treatment requirements, and must require a public
292 water supplier to provide an approach to meet the required
293 pathogen treatment requirements in an engineering report as part
294 of its public water supply permit application for authorization
295 of potable reuse. To ensure protection of the public health, as
296 part of the public water supply permit application to authorize
297 potable reuse, a public water supplier shall provide a
298 department-specified level of treatment or propose an approach
299 to achieving the log reduction targets based on source water
300 characterization that is sufficient for a pathogen risk of
301 infection which meets the national drinking water criteria of
302 less than 1 x 10-4 annually.
303 (c) Prescribe the means for using appropriate treatment
304 technology to address emerging constituents in potable reuse
305 projects. The advanced treatment technology must be technically
306 and economically feasible and must provide for flexibility in
307 the specific treatment processes employed to recognize different
308 project scenarios, emerging constituent concentrations, desired
309 finished water quality, and the treatment capability of the
310 facility. The advanced treatment technology may also be used for
311 pathogen removal or reduction.
312 1. The rules must require appropriate monitoring to
313 evaluate advanced treatment technology treatment performance,
314 including the monitoring of surrogate parameters and controls,
315 which monitoring must occur either before or after the advanced
316 treatment technologies treatment process, or both, as
317 appropriate.
318 2. For direct potable reuse projects, the rules must
319 require reclaimed water to be included in the source water
320 characterization for a drinking water treatment facility and, if
321 that source water characterization indicates the presence of
322 emerging constituents at levels of public health interest, must
323 specify how appropriate treatment technology will be used to
324 address those emerging constituents.
325 3. For indirect potable reuse projects, the department
326 shall amend the existing monitoring requirements contained
327 within part V of chapter 62-610, Florida Administrative Code, to
328 require monitoring for one or more representative emerging
329 constituents. The utility responsible for the indirect potable
330 reuse project shall develop an emerging constituent monitoring
331 protocol consisting of the selection of one or more
332 representative emerging constituents for monitoring and the
333 identification of action levels associated with such emerging
334 constituents. The monitoring protocol must provide that, if
335 elevated levels of the representative emerging constituent are
336 detected, the utility must report the elevated detection to the
337 department and investigate the source and cause of such elevated
338 emerging constituent. The utility shall submit the monitoring
339 protocol to the department for review and approval and shall
340 implement the monitoring protocol as approved by the department.
341 If the monitoring protocol detects an elevated emerging
342 constituent, and if the utility’s investigation indicates that
343 the use of the reclaimed water is the cause of such elevated
344 emerging constituent, the utility must develop a plan to address
345 or remedy that cause. The utility’s monitoring results,
346 investigation of any detected elevated emerging constituent
347 levels, determination of cause, and any plan developed to
348 address or remedy the cause must be submitted to the department
349 for review and approval.
350 (d) Specify industrial pretreatment requirements for
351 potable reuse projects. These industrial pretreatment
352 requirements must match the industrial pretreatment requirements
353 contained in chapter 62-625, Florida Administrative Code, as of
354 the effective date of this act. If necessary, the department
355 also must require the utility operating a potable reuse project
356 to implement a source control program, and the utility shall
357 identify the sources that need to be addressed.
358 (e) Provide off-spec reclaimed water requirements for
359 potable reuse projects which include the immediate disposal,
360 temporary storage, alternative nonpotable reuse, or retreatment
361 or disposal of off-spec reclaimed water based on operating
362 protocols established by the public water supplier and approved
363 by the department.
364 (f) Revise existing rules to specify the point of
365 compliance with drinking water standards for potable reuse
366 projects as the point where the finished water is finally
367 discharged from the drinking water treatment facility to the
368 water distribution system.
369 (g) Ensure that, as rules for potable reuse projects are
370 implemented, chapter 62-610.850, Florida Administrative Code, is
371 applicable.
372 (h) Revise the definition of the term “indirect potable
373 reuse” provided in chapter 62-610, Florida Administrative Code,
374 to match the definition provided in s. 403.8531, Florida
375 Statutes.
376 (2) The department shall convene and lead one or more
377 technical advisory committees to coordinate the rulemaking and
378 review of rules required by s. 403.8531, Florida Statutes. The
379 technical advisory committees, which shall assist in the
380 development of such rules, must be composed of knowledgeable
381 representatives of a broad group of interested stakeholders,
382 including, but not limited to, representatives from the water
383 management districts, the wastewater utility industry, the water
384 utility industry, the environmental community, the business
385 community, the public health community, and the agricultural
386 community, and consumers.
387 Section 5. To further promote the reuse of reclaimed water
388 for irrigation purposes, the rules that apply when reclaimed
389 water is injected into a receiving groundwater having 1,000 to
390 3,000 mg/L total dissolved solids are applicable to reclaimed
391 water aquifer storage and recovery wells injecting into a
392 receiving groundwater of less than 1,000 mg/L total dissolved
393 solids if the applicant demonstrates that there are no public
394 supply wells within 3,500 feet of the aquifer storage and
395 recovery wells and that it has implemented institutional
396 controls to prevent the future construction of public supply
397 wells within 3,500 feet of the aquifer storage and recovery
398 wells.
399 Section 6. The Division of Law Revision is directed to
400 replace the phrase “the effective date of this act” wherever it
401 occurs in this act with the date the act becomes a law.
402 Section 7. The Legislature determines and declares that
403 this act fulfills an important state interest.
404 Section 8. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.