Florida Senate - 2023                                     SB 734
       
       
        
       By Senator Polsky
       
       
       
       
       
       30-00018-23                                            2023734__
    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 to coastal counties for saltwater intrusion
    6         vulnerability assessments; specifying the purpose of
    7         and 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; specifying that certain counties are not
   15         required to contribute to the cost-share funding;
   16         providing an effective date.
   17          
   18  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   19  
   20         Section 1. Paragraph (b) of subsection (3) of section
   21  380.093, Florida Statutes, is amended, and paragraph (e) is
   22  added to that subsection, to read:
   23         380.093 Resilient Florida Grant Program; comprehensive
   24  statewide flood vulnerability and sea level rise data set and
   25  assessment; Statewide Flooding and Sea Level Rise Resilience
   26  Plan; regional resilience entities.—
   27         (3) RESILIENT FLORIDA GRANT PROGRAM.—
   28         (b) Subject to appropriation, the department may provide
   29  grants to a county or municipality to fund:
   30         1. The costs of community resilience planning and necessary
   31  data collection for such planning, including comprehensive plan
   32  amendments and necessary corresponding analyses that address the
   33  requirements of s. 163.3178(2)(f).
   34         2. Vulnerability assessments that identify or address risks
   35  of inland or coastal flooding and sea level rise.
   36         3. The development of projects, plans, and policies that
   37  allow communities to prepare for threats from flooding and sea
   38  level rise.
   39         4. Preconstruction activities for projects to be submitted
   40  for inclusion in the Statewide Flooding and Sea Level Rise
   41  Resilience Plan which that are located in a municipality that
   42  has a population of 10,000 or less fewer or a county that has a
   43  population of 50,000 or less fewer, according to the most recent
   44  April 1 population estimates posted on the Office of Economic
   45  and Demographic Research’s website.
   46         5. For coastal counties, saltwater intrusion vulnerability
   47  assessments pursuant to paragraph (e).
   48         (e) Under the Resilient Florida Grant Program, beginning
   49  July 1, 2024, the department may provide grants to coastal
   50  counties to conduct vulnerability assessments analyzing the
   51  effects of saltwater intrusion on a county’s water supply and
   52  the preparedness of the county to respond to such a threat,
   53  including water utility infrastructure, wellfield protection,
   54  and freshwater supply management.
   55         1. Each saltwater vulnerability assessment must include all
   56  of the following information:
   57         a. The county’s primary water utilities.
   58         b. Current maps of the county’s freshwater wellfields and
   59  latest saltwater intrusion impact lines.
   60         c. Projections of saltwater intrusion over the next decade,
   61  including specific wells that may be impacted during that
   62  timeframe.
   63         d. An analysis of the costs necessary to relocate
   64  freshwater wellfields anticipated to be impacted, including
   65  current projects that are underway to relocate the freshwater
   66  wellfields.
   67         2. The department shall use the information contained in
   68  the county’s vulnerability assessment to update its
   69  comprehensive statewide flood vulnerability and sea level rise
   70  data set under subsection (4).
   71         3. The department shall make available to the public, on
   72  the department’s website, any appropriate information from the
   73  vulnerability assessment it receives from coastal counties
   74  pursuant to this paragraph.
   75         4. The department shall provide 50 percent cost-share
   76  funding, up to $250,000, for each grant awarded under this
   77  paragraph. A county with a population of 50,000 or less is not
   78  required to contribute to the cost share.
   79         Section 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.