Bill Text: FL S0538 | 2010 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Everglades Restoration [EPSC]

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Failed) 2010-04-30 - Died in Committee on Environmental Preservation and Conservation [S0538 Detail]

Download: Florida-2010-S0538-Introduced.html

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Florida Senate - 2010                                     SB 538 
 
By Senator Constantine 
22-00329-10                                            2010538__ 
1                        A bill to be entitled 
2         An act relating to Everglades restoration; amending s. 
3         373.4592, F.S.; deleting an obsolete provision 
4         relating to a report by the South Florida Water 
5         Management District and the Department of 
6         Environmental Protection on the research and 
7         monitoring program within the Everglades Protection 
8         Area; providing an effective date. 
9 
10  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 
11 
12         Section 1. Paragraph (d) of subsection (4) of section 
13  373.4592, Florida Statutes, is amended to read: 
14         373.4592 Everglades improvement and management.— 
15         (4) EVERGLADES PROGRAM.— 
16         (d) Everglades research and monitoring program.— 
17         1. The department and the district shall review and 
18  evaluate available water quality data for the Everglades 
19  Protection Area and tributary waters and identify any additional 
20  information necessary to adequately describe water quality in 
21  the Everglades Protection Area and tributary waters. The 
22  department and the district shall also initiate a research and 
23  monitoring program to generate such additional information 
24  identified and to evaluate the effectiveness of the BMPs and 
25  STAs, as they are implemented, in improving water quality and 
26  maintaining designated and existing beneficial uses of the 
27  Everglades Protection Area and tributary waters. As part of the 
28  program, the district shall monitor all discharges into the 
29  Everglades Protection Area for purposes of determining 
30  compliance with state water quality standards. 
31         2. The research and monitoring program shall evaluate the 
32  ecological and hydrological needs of the Everglades Protection 
33  Area, including the minimum flows and levels. Consistent with 
34  such needs, the program shall also evaluate water quality 
35  standards for the Everglades Protection Area and for the canals 
36  of the EAA, so that these canals can be classified in the manner 
37  set forth in paragraph (e) and protected as an integral part of 
38  the water management system which includes the STAs of the 
39  Everglades Construction Project and allows landowners in the EAA 
40  to achieve applicable water quality standards compliance by BMPs 
41  and STA treatment to the extent this treatment is available and 
42  effective. 
43         3. The research and monitoring program shall include 
44  research seeking to optimize the design and operation of the 
45  STAs, including research to reduce outflow concentrations, and 
46  to identify other treatment and management methods and 
47  regulatory programs that are superior to STAs in achieving the 
48  intent and purposes of this section. 
49         4. The research and monitoring program shall be conducted 
50  to allow the department to propose a phosphorus criterion in the 
51  Everglades Protection Area, and to evaluate existing state water 
52  quality standards applicable to the Everglades Protection Area 
53  and existing state water quality standards and classifications 
54  applicable to the EAA canals. In developing the phosphorus 
55  criterion, the department shall also consider the minimum flows 
56  and levels for the Everglades Protection Area and the district’s 
57  water supply plans for the Lower East Coast. 
58         5. Beginning March 1, 2006, As part of the consolidated 
59  annual report required by s. 373.036(7), the district and the 
60  department shall annually issue a peer-reviewed report regarding 
61  the research and monitoring program that summarizes all data and 
62  findings. The report shall identify water quality parameters, in 
63  addition to phosphorus, which exceed state water quality 
64  standards or are causing or contributing to adverse impacts in 
65  the Everglades Protection Area. 
66         6. The district shall continue research seeking to optimize 
67  the design and operation of STAs and to identify other treatment 
68  and management methods that are superior to STAs in achieving 
69  optimum water quality and water quantity for the benefit of the 
70  Everglades. The district shall optimize the design and operation 
71  of the STAs described in the Everglades Construction Project 
72  prior to expanding their size. Additional methods to achieve 
73  compliance with water quality standards shall not be limited to 
74  more intensive management of the STAs. 
75         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2010.