Florida Senate - 2022                                     SB 832
       
       
        
       By Senator Stewart
       
       
       
       
       
       13-00423A-22                                           2022832__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to implementation of the
    3         recommendations of the Blue-Green Algae Task Force;
    4         amending s. 381.0065, F.S.; requiring owners of
    5         certain onsite sewage treatment and disposal systems
    6         to have the systems periodically inspected, beginning
    7         on a specified date; requiring the Department of
    8         Environmental Protection to administer the inspection
    9         program; requiring the department to implement program
   10         standards, procedures, and requirements; providing for
   11         rulemaking; amending s. 403.067, F.S.; requiring new
   12         or revised basin management action plans to include a
   13         list that identifies and prioritizes certain spatially
   14         focused projects; requiring the department to assess
   15         certain projects; providing an effective date.
   16  
   17         WHEREAS, Governor Ron DeSantis created the Blue-Green Algae
   18  Task Force in 2019 to “improve water quality for the benefit of
   19  all Floridians,” and the task force’s consensus report was
   20  issued in October 2019, with multiple recommendations for basin
   21  management action plans (BMAP), agriculture, human waste,
   22  stormwater, technology, public health, and science, and
   23         WHEREAS, the Legislature recognizes that in June 2020,
   24  Governor DeSantis signed Senate Bill 712, the Clean Waterways
   25  Act, which implemented many of the recommendations of the task
   26  force, and
   27         WHEREAS, full implementation of the task force’s
   28  recommendations will require enactment of additional substantive
   29  legislation, NOW, THEREFORE,
   30  
   31  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   32  
   33         Section 1. Present subsections (5), (6), and (7) of section
   34  381.0065, Florida Statutes, are redesignated as subsections (6),
   35  (7), and (8), respectively, and a new subsection (5) is added to
   36  that section, to read:
   37         381.0065 Onsite sewage treatment and disposal systems;
   38  regulation.—
   39         (5) PERIODIC INSPECTIONS.—Effective July 1, 2025, the owner
   40  of an onsite sewage treatment and disposal system, excluding a
   41  system required to have an operating permit, must have the
   42  system inspected at least once every 5 years to assess the
   43  fundamental operational condition of the system, prolong the
   44  life of the system, and identify any failure within the system.
   45  The department shall administer an onsite sewage treatment and
   46  disposal system inspection program for such periodic
   47  inspections. The department shall implement the program
   48  standards, procedures, and requirements and adopt rules that
   49  must include, at a minimum, all of the following:
   50         (a)A schedule for a 5-year inspection cycle.
   51         (b)A county-by-county implementation plan phased in over a
   52  10-year period, with first priority given to those areas within
   53  a priority focus area for springs identified by the department.
   54         (c)Minimum standards for a functioning system.
   55         (d)Requirements for the pumpout or repair of a failing
   56  system.
   57         (e)Enforcement procedures for failure of a system owner to
   58  obtain an inspection of the system and failure of a contractor
   59  to timely report inspection results to the department and the
   60  system owner.
   61         Section 2. Paragraph (a) of subsection (7) of section
   62  403.067, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
   63         403.067 Establishment and implementation of total maximum
   64  daily loads.—
   65         (7) DEVELOPMENT OF BASIN MANAGEMENT PLANS AND
   66  IMPLEMENTATION OF TOTAL MAXIMUM DAILY LOADS.—
   67         (a) Basin management action plans.—
   68         1. In developing and implementing the total maximum daily
   69  load for a water body, the department, or the department in
   70  conjunction with a water management district, may develop a
   71  basin management action plan that addresses some or all of the
   72  watersheds and basins tributary to the water body. Such plan
   73  must integrate the appropriate management strategies available
   74  to the state through existing water quality protection programs
   75  to achieve the total maximum daily loads and may provide for
   76  phased implementation of these management strategies to promote
   77  timely, cost-effective actions as provided for in s. 403.151.
   78  The plan must establish a schedule implementing the management
   79  strategies, establish a basis for evaluating the plan’s
   80  effectiveness, and identify feasible funding strategies for
   81  implementing the plan’s management strategies. The management
   82  strategies may include regional treatment systems or other
   83  public works, when appropriate, and voluntary trading of water
   84  quality credits to achieve the needed pollutant load reductions.
   85         2. A basin management action plan must equitably allocate,
   86  pursuant to paragraph (6)(b), pollutant reductions to individual
   87  basins, as a whole to all basins, or to each identified point
   88  source or category of nonpoint sources, as appropriate. For
   89  nonpoint sources for which best management practices have been
   90  adopted, the initial requirement specified by the plan must be
   91  those practices developed pursuant to paragraph (c). When
   92  appropriate, the plan may take into account the benefits of
   93  pollutant load reduction achieved by point or nonpoint sources
   94  that have implemented management strategies to reduce pollutant
   95  loads, including best management practices, before the
   96  development of the basin management action plan. The plan must
   97  also identify the mechanisms that will address potential future
   98  increases in pollutant loading.
   99         3. The basin management action planning process is intended
  100  to involve the broadest possible range of interested parties,
  101  with the objective of encouraging the greatest amount of
  102  cooperation and consensus possible. In developing a basin
  103  management action plan, the department shall assure that key
  104  stakeholders, including, but not limited to, applicable local
  105  governments, water management districts, the Department of
  106  Agriculture and Consumer Services, other appropriate state
  107  agencies, local soil and water conservation districts,
  108  environmental groups, regulated interests, and affected
  109  pollution sources, are invited to participate in the process.
  110  The department shall hold at least one public meeting in the
  111  vicinity of the watershed or basin to discuss and receive
  112  comments during the planning process and shall otherwise
  113  encourage public participation to the greatest practicable
  114  extent. Notice of the public meeting must be published in a
  115  newspaper of general circulation in each county in which the
  116  watershed or basin lies at least 5 days, but not more than 15
  117  days, before the public meeting. A basin management action plan
  118  does not supplant or otherwise alter any assessment made under
  119  subsection (3) or subsection (4) or any calculation or initial
  120  allocation.
  121         4.a. Each new or revised basin management action plan must
  122  shall include:
  123         (I)a. The appropriate management strategies available
  124  through existing water quality protection programs to achieve
  125  total maximum daily loads, which may provide for phased
  126  implementation to promote timely, cost-effective actions as
  127  provided for in s. 403.151;
  128         (II)b. A description of best management practices adopted
  129  by rule;
  130         (III)c. A list of projects in priority ranking with a
  131  planning-level cost estimate and estimated date of completion
  132  for each listed project;
  133         (IV)A list that identifies and prioritizes spatially
  134  focused suites of projects in areas likely to yield maximum
  135  pollutant reductions;
  136         (V)d. The source and amount of financial assistance to be
  137  made available by the department, a water management district,
  138  or other entity for each listed project, if applicable; and
  139         (VI)e. A planning-level estimate of each listed project’s
  140  expected load reduction, if applicable.
  141         b.For each project listed pursuant to this subparagraph
  142  which has a total cost that exceeds $1 million, the department
  143  must assess through integrated and comprehensive monitoring
  144  whether the project is working to reduce nutrient pollution or
  145  water use, or both, as intended. These assessments must be
  146  completed expeditiously and included in each basin management
  147  action plan update.
  148         5. The department shall adopt all or any part of a basin
  149  management action plan and any amendment to such plan by
  150  secretarial order pursuant to chapter 120 to implement this
  151  section.
  152         6. The basin management action plan must include milestones
  153  for implementation and water quality improvement, and an
  154  associated water quality monitoring component sufficient to
  155  evaluate whether reasonable progress in pollutant load
  156  reductions is being achieved over time. An assessment of
  157  progress toward these milestones shall be conducted every 5
  158  years, and revisions to the plan shall be made as appropriate.
  159  Revisions to the basin management action plan shall be made by
  160  the department in cooperation with basin stakeholders. Revisions
  161  to the management strategies required for nonpoint sources must
  162  follow the procedures in subparagraph (c)4. Revised basin
  163  management action plans must be adopted pursuant to subparagraph
  164  5.
  165         7. In accordance with procedures adopted by rule under
  166  paragraph (9)(c), basin management action plans, and other
  167  pollution control programs under local, state, or federal
  168  authority as provided in subsection (4), may allow point or
  169  nonpoint sources that will achieve greater pollutant reductions
  170  than required by an adopted total maximum daily load or
  171  wasteload allocation to generate, register, and trade water
  172  quality credits for the excess reductions to enable other
  173  sources to achieve their allocation; however, the generation of
  174  water quality credits does not remove the obligation of a source
  175  or activity to meet applicable technology requirements or
  176  adopted best management practices. Such plans must allow trading
  177  between NPDES permittees, and trading that may or may not
  178  involve NPDES permittees, where the generation or use of the
  179  credits involve an entity or activity not subject to department
  180  water discharge permits whose owner voluntarily elects to obtain
  181  department authorization for the generation and sale of credits.
  182         8. The department’s rule relating to the equitable
  183  abatement of pollutants into surface waters do not apply to
  184  water bodies or water body segments for which a basin management
  185  plan that takes into account future new or expanded activities
  186  or discharges has been adopted under this section.
  187         9. In order to promote resilient wastewater utilities, if
  188  the department identifies domestic wastewater treatment
  189  facilities or onsite sewage treatment and disposal systems as
  190  contributors of at least 20 percent of point source or nonpoint
  191  source nutrient pollution or if the department determines
  192  remediation is necessary to achieve the total maximum daily
  193  load, a basin management action plan for a nutrient total
  194  maximum daily load must include the following:
  195         a. A wastewater treatment plan developed by each local
  196  government, in cooperation with the department, the water
  197  management district, and the public and private domestic
  198  wastewater treatment facilities within the jurisdiction of the
  199  local government, that addresses domestic wastewater. The
  200  wastewater treatment plan must:
  201         (I) Provide for construction, expansion, or upgrades
  202  necessary to achieve the total maximum daily load requirements
  203  applicable to the domestic wastewater treatment facility.
  204         (II) Include the permitted capacity in average annual
  205  gallons per day for the domestic wastewater treatment facility;
  206  the average nutrient concentration and the estimated average
  207  nutrient load of the domestic wastewater; a projected timeline
  208  of the dates by which the construction of any facility
  209  improvements will begin and be completed and the date by which
  210  operations of the improved facility will begin; the estimated
  211  cost of the improvements; and the identity of responsible
  212  parties.
  213  
  214  The wastewater treatment plan must be adopted as part of the
  215  basin management action plan no later than July 1, 2025. A local
  216  government that does not have a domestic wastewater treatment
  217  facility in its jurisdiction is not required to develop a
  218  wastewater treatment plan unless there is a demonstrated need to
  219  establish a domestic wastewater treatment facility within its
  220  jurisdiction to improve water quality necessary to achieve a
  221  total maximum daily load. A local government is not responsible
  222  for a private domestic wastewater facility’s compliance with a
  223  basin management action plan unless such facility is operated
  224  through a public-private partnership to which the local
  225  government is a party.
  226         b. An onsite sewage treatment and disposal system
  227  remediation plan developed by each local government in
  228  cooperation with the department, the Department of Health, water
  229  management districts, and public and private domestic wastewater
  230  treatment facilities.
  231         (I) The onsite sewage treatment and disposal system
  232  remediation plan must identify cost-effective and financially
  233  feasible projects necessary to achieve the nutrient load
  234  reductions required for onsite sewage treatment and disposal
  235  systems. To identify cost-effective and financially feasible
  236  projects for remediation of onsite sewage treatment and disposal
  237  systems, the local government shall:
  238         (A) Include an inventory of onsite sewage treatment and
  239  disposal systems based on the best information available;
  240         (B) Identify onsite sewage treatment and disposal systems
  241  that would be eliminated through connection to existing or
  242  future central domestic wastewater infrastructure in the
  243  jurisdiction or domestic wastewater service area of the local
  244  government, that would be replaced with or upgraded to enhanced
  245  nutrient-reducing onsite sewage treatment and disposal systems,
  246  or that would remain on conventional onsite sewage treatment and
  247  disposal systems;
  248         (C) Estimate the costs of potential onsite sewage treatment
  249  and disposal system connections, upgrades, or replacements; and
  250         (D) Identify deadlines and interim milestones for the
  251  planning, design, and construction of projects.
  252         (II) The department shall adopt the onsite sewage treatment
  253  and disposal system remediation plan as part of the basin
  254  management action plan no later than July 1, 2025, or as
  255  required for Outstanding Florida Springs under s. 373.807.
  256         10. When identifying wastewater projects in a basin
  257  management action plan, the department may not require the
  258  higher cost option if it achieves the same nutrient load
  259  reduction as a lower cost option. A regulated entity may choose
  260  a different cost option if it complies with the pollutant
  261  reduction requirements of an adopted total maximum daily load
  262  and meets or exceeds the pollution reduction requirement of the
  263  original project.
  264         Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2022.