Water Supply & Quality

FAC staff was actively involved in the development of  CS/CS/CS/SB 550 by Senator Constatine.  As drafted, the bill required the creation of responsible management entities (RMEs) in every county.  This would have essentially required every county to create a new utility and charge a new tax.  With the current state of the economy, it is the wrong time to require that counties charge new taxes, even though water quality is a laudable and important goal.

The RME concept is innovative but unproven in Florida.  Counties can already create RMEs under their home rule authority.  Since counties bear an enormous financial responsibility for implementing the Clean Water Act, the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program and the pending Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) numeric nutrient criteria rulemaking both bring with them a significant cost to counties, and thus their taxpayers.  At some point in the future, RMEs may prove to be a useful tool in implementing water quality improvements.  But to mandate them statewide before doing a small pilot project is not the best way to approach such a complex program.

As passed, the bill no longer contains any RME language.  Instead, the bill creates a statewide inspection program for septic tanks, administered by the Department of Health (DOH).  Additionally, the bill contains numerous provisions from various other water bills, including the Chapter 373 Rewrite, which organizes all of the water supply provisions in Chapter 373 into a new Part VII[1], as well as legislative intent relating to numeric nutrient criteria, consensus recommendations from the reclaimed water working group[2], and provisions relating to water supply funding[3].  The bill also revises the delegation to the water management district Executive Directors that was contained in SB 2080 in the 2009 Regular Session.  SB 550 keeps delegation in place for environmental resource permits, but allows consumptive use permits to be approved by the governing boards[4].  Additionally, there are provisions relating to Monroe County and the Florida Keys, as well as the Wekiva Protection Area.

The bill also contains a consumptive use permit review provision that extends the review time from every five years to every ten years[5].  This provision had widespread support from numerous stakeholder groups.  The bill also includes provisions relating to limestone mining and “life-of-the-mine” permits[6].  Counties expressed concern with these provisions early in the session, but amendments were adopted to address those specific concerns.  The bill also contains provisions relating to liners for construction and demolition debris facilities.  Effective date: July 1, 2010.