Florida Senate - 2022                             CS for SB 1238
       
       
        
       By the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources; and
       Senator Polsky
       
       
       
       
       592-02534-22                                          20221238c1
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to saltwater intrusion vulnerability
    3         assessments; amending s. 380.093, F.S.; authorizing
    4         the Department of Environmental Protection to provide
    5         grants for saltwater intrusion vulnerability
    6         assessments; specifying the purpose of and
    7         requirements for the assessments; requiring the
    8         department to update the comprehensive statewide flood
    9         vulnerability and sea level rise data set and make
   10         certain information received from the saltwater
   11         intrusion vulnerability assessments available on its
   12         website; requiring the department to provide cost
   13         share funding up to a specified amount for awarded
   14         grants; providing an effective date.
   15          
   16  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   17  
   18         Section 1. Paragraph (b) of subsection (3) of section
   19  380.093, Florida Statutes, is amended, and paragraph (e) is
   20  added to that subsection, to read:
   21         380.093 Resilient Florida Grant Program; comprehensive
   22  statewide flood vulnerability and sea level rise data set and
   23  assessment; Statewide Flooding and Sea Level Rise Resilience
   24  Plan; regional resilience entities.—
   25         (3) RESILIENT FLORIDA GRANT PROGRAM.—
   26         (b) Subject to appropriation, the department may provide
   27  grants to a county or municipality to fund the costs of
   28  community resilience planning and necessary data collection for
   29  such planning, including comprehensive plan amendments and
   30  necessary corresponding analyses that address the requirements
   31  of s. 163.3178(2)(f); vulnerability assessments that identify or
   32  address risks of flooding and sea level rise; the development of
   33  projects, plans, and policies that allow communities to prepare
   34  for threats from flooding and sea level rise; saltwater
   35  intrusion vulnerability assessments for coastal counties
   36  pursuant to paragraph (e); and projects to adapt critical assets
   37  to the effects of flooding and sea level rise.
   38         (e) Within the Resilient Florida Grant Program, beginning
   39  July 1, 2023, the department may provide grants to coastal
   40  counties to conduct vulnerability assessments analyzing the
   41  effects of saltwater intrusion on the county’s water supply and
   42  the preparedness of the county to respond to such a threat,
   43  including water utility infrastructure, wellfield protection,
   44  and freshwater supply management.
   45         1. Each saltwater vulnerability assessment must include all
   46  of the following information:
   47         a. The county’s primary water utilities.
   48         b. Current maps of the county’s freshwater wellfields and
   49  latest saltwater intrusion impact lines.
   50         c. Projections of saltwater intrusion over the next decade,
   51  including specific wells that may be impacted during that
   52  timeframe.
   53         d. An analysis of the costs necessary to relocate
   54  freshwater wellfields that are anticipated to be impacted,
   55  including current projects that are underway to relocate the
   56  freshwater wellfields.
   57         2. The department shall use the information contained
   58  within the county’s vulnerability assessment to update its
   59  comprehensive statewide flood vulnerability and sea level rise
   60  data set under subsection (4).
   61         3. The department must make any appropriate information
   62  from the vulnerability assessment it receives from coastal
   63  counties pursuant to this paragraph available to the public on
   64  the department’s website.
   65         4. The department shall provide 50 percent cost-share
   66  funding, up to $250,000, for each grant awarded under this
   67  paragraph. A county with a population of 50,000 or less is not
   68  required to contribute to the cost share.
   69         Section 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.