Florida Senate - 2023                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. SB 1538
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Ì611188<Î611188                         
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
                    Senate             .             House              
                  Comm: RCS            .                                
                  04/04/2023           .                                
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       The Committee on Environment and Natural Resources (Stewart)
       recommended the following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
    2  
    3         Delete everything after the enacting clause
    4  and insert:
    5         Section 1. Paragraph (a) of subsection (7) of section
    6  403.067, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
    7         403.067 Establishment and implementation of total maximum
    8  daily loads.—
    9         (7) DEVELOPMENT OF BASIN MANAGEMENT PLANS AND
   10  IMPLEMENTATION OF TOTAL MAXIMUM DAILY LOADS.—
   11         (a) Basin management action plans.—
   12         1. In developing and implementing the total maximum daily
   13  load for a water body, the department, or the department in
   14  conjunction with a water management district, may develop a
   15  basin management action plan that addresses some or all of the
   16  watersheds and basins tributary to the water body. Such plan
   17  must integrate the appropriate management strategies available
   18  to the state through existing water quality protection programs
   19  to achieve the total maximum daily loads and may provide for
   20  phased implementation of these management strategies to promote
   21  timely, cost-effective actions as provided for in s. 403.151.
   22  The plan must establish a schedule implementing the management
   23  strategies, establish a basis for evaluating the plan’s
   24  effectiveness, and identify feasible funding strategies for
   25  implementing the plan’s management strategies. The management
   26  strategies may include regional treatment systems or other
   27  public works, when appropriate, and voluntary trading of water
   28  quality credits to achieve the needed pollutant load reductions.
   29         2. A basin management action plan must equitably allocate,
   30  pursuant to paragraph (6)(b), pollutant reductions to individual
   31  basins, as a whole to all basins, or to each identified point
   32  source or category of nonpoint sources, as appropriate. For
   33  nonpoint sources for which best management practices have been
   34  adopted, the initial requirement specified by the plan must be
   35  those practices developed pursuant to paragraph (c). When
   36  appropriate, the plan may take into account the benefits of
   37  pollutant load reduction achieved by point or nonpoint sources
   38  that have implemented management strategies to reduce pollutant
   39  loads, including best management practices, before the
   40  development of the basin management action plan. The plan must
   41  also identify the mechanisms that will address potential future
   42  increases in pollutant loading.
   43         3. The basin management action planning process is intended
   44  to involve the broadest possible range of interested parties,
   45  with the objective of encouraging the greatest amount of
   46  cooperation and consensus possible. In developing a basin
   47  management action plan, the department shall assure that key
   48  stakeholders, including, but not limited to, applicable local
   49  governments, water management districts, the Department of
   50  Agriculture and Consumer Services, other appropriate state
   51  agencies, local soil and water conservation districts,
   52  environmental groups, regulated interests, and affected
   53  pollution sources, are invited to participate in the process.
   54  The department shall hold at least one public meeting in the
   55  vicinity of the watershed or basin to discuss and receive
   56  comments during the planning process and shall otherwise
   57  encourage public participation to the greatest practicable
   58  extent. Notice of the public meeting must be published in a
   59  newspaper of general circulation in each county in which the
   60  watershed or basin lies at least 5 days, but not more than 15
   61  days, before the public meeting. A basin management action plan
   62  does not supplant or otherwise alter any assessment made under
   63  subsection (3) or subsection (4) or any calculation or initial
   64  allocation.
   65         4.a. Each new or revised basin management action plan must
   66  shall include:
   67         (I)a. The appropriate management strategies available
   68  through existing water quality protection programs to achieve
   69  total maximum daily loads, which may provide for phased
   70  implementation to promote timely, cost-effective actions as
   71  provided for in s. 403.151;
   72         (II)b. A description of best management practices adopted
   73  by rule;
   74         (III)c. A list of projects in priority ranking with a
   75  planning-level cost estimate and estimated date of completion
   76  for each listed project;
   77         (IV)d. The source and amount of financial assistance to be
   78  made available by the department, a water management district,
   79  or other entity for each listed project, if applicable; and
   80         (V)e. A planning-level estimate of each listed project’s
   81  expected load reduction, if applicable.
   82         b.For each project listed pursuant to this subparagraph
   83  which has a total cost that exceeds $1 million, the department
   84  must assess through integrated and comprehensive monitoring
   85  whether the project is working to reduce nutrient pollution or
   86  water use, or both, as intended. These assessments must be
   87  completed expeditiously and included in each basin management
   88  action plan update.
   89         5. The department shall adopt all or any part of a basin
   90  management action plan and any amendment to such plan by
   91  secretarial order pursuant to chapter 120 to implement this
   92  section.
   93         6. The basin management action plan must include milestones
   94  for implementation and water quality improvement, and an
   95  associated water quality monitoring component sufficient to
   96  evaluate whether reasonable progress in pollutant load
   97  reductions is being achieved over time. An assessment of
   98  progress toward these milestones shall be conducted every 5
   99  years, and revisions to the plan shall be made as appropriate.
  100  Revisions to the basin management action plan shall be made by
  101  the department in cooperation with basin stakeholders. Revisions
  102  to the management strategies required for nonpoint sources must
  103  follow the procedures in subparagraph (c)4. Revised basin
  104  management action plans must be adopted pursuant to subparagraph
  105  5.
  106         7. In accordance with procedures adopted by rule under
  107  paragraph (9)(c), basin management action plans, and other
  108  pollution control programs under local, state, or federal
  109  authority as provided in subsection (4), may allow point or
  110  nonpoint sources that will achieve greater pollutant reductions
  111  than required by an adopted total maximum daily load or
  112  wasteload allocation to generate, register, and trade water
  113  quality credits for the excess reductions to enable other
  114  sources to achieve their allocation; however, the generation of
  115  water quality credits does not remove the obligation of a source
  116  or activity to meet applicable technology requirements or
  117  adopted best management practices. Such plans must allow trading
  118  between NPDES permittees, and trading that may or may not
  119  involve NPDES permittees, where the generation or use of the
  120  credits involve an entity or activity not subject to department
  121  water discharge permits whose owner voluntarily elects to obtain
  122  department authorization for the generation and sale of credits.
  123         8. The department’s rule relating to the equitable
  124  abatement of pollutants into surface waters do not apply to
  125  water bodies or water body segments for which a basin management
  126  plan that takes into account future new or expanded activities
  127  or discharges has been adopted under this section.
  128         9. In order to promote resilient wastewater utilities, if
  129  the department identifies domestic wastewater treatment
  130  facilities or onsite sewage treatment and disposal systems as
  131  contributors of at least 20 percent of point source or nonpoint
  132  source nutrient pollution or if the department determines
  133  remediation is necessary to achieve the total maximum daily
  134  load, a basin management action plan for a nutrient total
  135  maximum daily load must include the following:
  136         a. A wastewater treatment plan developed by each local
  137  government, in cooperation with the department, the water
  138  management district, and the public and private domestic
  139  wastewater treatment facilities within the jurisdiction of the
  140  local government, that addresses domestic wastewater. The
  141  wastewater treatment plan must:
  142         (I) Provide for construction, expansion, or upgrades
  143  necessary to achieve the total maximum daily load requirements
  144  applicable to the domestic wastewater treatment facility.
  145         (II) Include the permitted capacity in average annual
  146  gallons per day for the domestic wastewater treatment facility;
  147  the average nutrient concentration and the estimated average
  148  nutrient load of the domestic wastewater; a projected timeline
  149  of the dates by which the construction of any facility
  150  improvements will begin and be completed and the date by which
  151  operations of the improved facility will begin; the estimated
  152  cost of the improvements; and the identity of responsible
  153  parties.
  154  
  155  The wastewater treatment plan must be adopted as part of the
  156  basin management action plan no later than July 1, 2025. A local
  157  government that does not have a domestic wastewater treatment
  158  facility in its jurisdiction is not required to develop a
  159  wastewater treatment plan unless there is a demonstrated need to
  160  establish a domestic wastewater treatment facility within its
  161  jurisdiction to improve water quality necessary to achieve a
  162  total maximum daily load. A local government is not responsible
  163  for a private domestic wastewater facility’s compliance with a
  164  basin management action plan unless such facility is operated
  165  through a public-private partnership to which the local
  166  government is a party.
  167         b. An onsite sewage treatment and disposal system
  168  remediation plan developed by each local government in
  169  cooperation with the department, the Department of Health, water
  170  management districts, and public and private domestic wastewater
  171  treatment facilities.
  172         (I) The onsite sewage treatment and disposal system
  173  remediation plan must identify cost-effective and financially
  174  feasible projects necessary to achieve the nutrient load
  175  reductions required for onsite sewage treatment and disposal
  176  systems. To identify cost-effective and financially feasible
  177  projects for remediation of onsite sewage treatment and disposal
  178  systems, the local government shall:
  179         (A) Include an inventory of onsite sewage treatment and
  180  disposal systems based on the best information available;
  181         (B) Identify onsite sewage treatment and disposal systems
  182  that would be eliminated through connection to existing or
  183  future central domestic wastewater infrastructure in the
  184  jurisdiction or domestic wastewater service area of the local
  185  government, that would be replaced with or upgraded to enhanced
  186  nutrient-reducing onsite sewage treatment and disposal systems,
  187  or that would remain on conventional onsite sewage treatment and
  188  disposal systems;
  189         (C) Estimate the costs of potential onsite sewage treatment
  190  and disposal system connections, upgrades, or replacements; and
  191         (D) Identify deadlines and interim milestones for the
  192  planning, design, and construction of projects.
  193         (II) The department shall adopt the onsite sewage treatment
  194  and disposal system remediation plan as part of the basin
  195  management action plan no later than July 1, 2025, or as
  196  required for Outstanding Florida Springs under s. 373.807.
  197         10. When identifying wastewater projects in a basin
  198  management action plan, the department may not require the
  199  higher cost option if it achieves the same nutrient load
  200  reduction as a lower cost option. A regulated entity may choose
  201  a different cost option if it complies with the pollutant
  202  reduction requirements of an adopted total maximum daily load
  203  and meets or exceeds the pollution reduction requirement of the
  204  original project.
  205         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2023.
  206  
  207  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
  208  And the title is amended as follows:
  209         Delete everything before the enacting clause
  210  and insert:
  211                        A bill to be entitled                      
  212         An act relating to implementation of the
  213         recommendations of the Blue-Green Algae Task Force;
  214         amending s. 403.067, F.S.; requiring the department to
  215         assess certain projects; providing requirements for
  216         the assessments; providing an effective date.