The Florida Senate

373.016  Declaration of policy.--

(1)  The waters in the state are among its basic resources. Such waters have not heretofore been conserved or fully controlled so as to realize their full beneficial use.

(2)  The department and the governing board shall take into account cumulative impacts on water resources and manage those resources in a manner to ensure their sustainability.

(3)  It is further declared to be the policy of the Legislature:

(a)  To provide for the management of water and related land resources;

(b)  To promote the conservation, replenishment, recapture, enhancement, development, and proper utilization of surface and ground water;

(c)  To develop and regulate dams, impoundments, reservoirs, and other works and to provide water storage for beneficial purposes;

(d)  To promote the availability of sufficient water for all existing and future reasonable-beneficial uses and natural systems;

(e)  To prevent damage from floods, soil erosion, and excessive drainage;

(f)  To minimize degradation of water resources caused by the discharge of stormwater;

(g)  To preserve natural resources, fish, and wildlife;

(h)  To promote the public policy set forth in s. 403.021;

(i)  To promote recreational development, protect public lands, and assist in maintaining the navigability of rivers and harbors; and

(j)  Otherwise to promote the health, safety, and general welfare of the people of this state.

In implementing this chapter, the department and the governing board shall construe and apply the policies in this subsection as a whole, and no specific policy is to be construed or applied in isolation from the other policies in this subsection.

(4)  The Legislature recognizes that the water resource problems of the state vary from region to region, both in magnitude and complexity. It is therefore the intent of the Legislature to vest in the Department of Environmental Protection or its successor agency the power and responsibility to accomplish the conservation, protection, management, and control of the waters of the state and with sufficient flexibility and discretion to accomplish these ends through delegation of appropriate powers to the various water management districts. The department may exercise any power herein authorized to be exercised by a water management district; however, to the greatest extent practicable, such power should be delegated to the governing board of a water management district.

(5)  It is further declared the policy of the Legislature that each water management district, to the extent consistent with effective management practices, shall approximate its fiscal and budget policies and procedures to those of the state.

History.--s. 2, part I, ch. 72-299; s. 36, ch. 79-65; s. 70, ch. 83-310; s. 5, ch. 89-279; s. 20, ch. 93-213; s. 250, ch. 94-356; s. 1, ch. 97-160.