Bill Text: FL S0560 | 2010 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Restoration of Lake Jesup [EPSC]

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Failed) 2010-04-30 - Died in Committee on Environmental Preservation and Conservation [S0560 Detail]

Download: Florida-2010-S0560-Introduced.html

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Florida Senate - 2010                                     SB 560 
 
By Senator Constantine 
22-00318-10                                            2010560__ 
1                        A bill to be entitled 
2         An act relating to the restoration of Lake Jesup; 
3         requiring the Department of Environmental Protection, 
4         the St. Johns River Water Management District, the 
5         Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and the 
6         City of Sanford to develop a plan concerning the 
7         progress of the commission’s project to restore 
8         aquatic habitats in Lake Jesup; requiring the 
9         commission to report to the Legislature concerning the 
10         development of the plan; providing that the 
11         acquisition of a site to dispose of muck from the 
12         project is a conservation and restoration acquisition 
13         under the Florida Forever program; encouraging state 
14         agencies to help fund the removal of muck from Lake 
15         Jesup; providing an effective date. 
16 
17         WHEREAS, the Legislature recognizes the importance of 
18  improving water quality in surface waters having regional or 
19  statewide significance, and 
20         WHEREAS, Lake Jesup, a lake that fluctuates with the St. 
21  Johns River system and encompasses between 9,150 acres at low 
22  water and 13,034 acres at high water, is an important natural 
23  resource of regional and statewide significance, an important 
24  economic resource, and a habitat for resident and migratory fish 
25  and waterfowl, and 
26         WHEREAS, historically, Lake Jesup has been a primary 
27  destination of sport fishers, a navigable waterway, and a 
28  waterway capable of supporting commerce, travel, and recreation, 
29  and 
30         WHEREAS, endangered species, such as the manatee and bald 
31  eagle, and species of special concern, such as the ibis, wood 
32  stork, and sandhill crane, use this lake and basin as habitat, 
33  and 
34         WHEREAS, hundreds of thousands of visitors are drawn to the 
35  area around Lake Jesup each year, and 
36         WHEREAS, the water quality, fisheries, and other biological 
37  communities of Lake Jesup have deteriorated, and 
38         WHEREAS, various state, federal, and local governmental 
39  agencies have been engaged in a coordinated and scientific 
40  approach to the restoration of Lake Jesup for some years, and 
41         WHEREAS, governmental agencies have purchased more than 
42  8,500 acres around the lake for purposes that include 
43  conservation and recreation as well as restoration of Lake 
44  Jesup, and 
45         WHEREAS, a mitigation project of the Department of 
46  Transportation removed a 2-mile berm from Lake Jesup which 
47  returned a substantial amount of navigability to the lake and 
48  allowed an additional 300 acres of the lake’s floodplain to 
49  again help filter particulates from the lake and absorb the 
50  lake’s nutrient pollution while increasing the lake’s ability to 
51  store floodwater and provide valuable habitat for plants and 
52  animals, and 
53         WHEREAS, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has 
54  embarked on a plan to restore aquatic habitat in the lake in 
55  order to rehabilitate the lake’s fishery resources, and a 
56  significant component of that plan requires removal of the large 
57  amount of muck that is now lying on the bottom of the lake and 
58  that is more than 9 1/2 feet thick in some areas, and 
59         WHEREAS, while significant progress has been made toward 
60  restoring Lake Jesup by the governmental agencies involved in 
61  this restoration project, the progress of the project is stymied 
62  by challenges associated with obtaining necessary permits for 
63  the muck-removal phase of the restoration, and 
64         WHEREAS, a parcel of land that the City of Sanford has used 
65  as a sprayfield for effluent from its wastewater treatment plant 
66  may be highly suitable as a muck-disposal site, NOW, THEREFORE, 
67 
68  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 
69 
70         Section 1. The Department of Environmental Protection, the 
71  St. Johns River Water Management District, the Fish and Wildlife 
72  Conservation Commission, and the City of Sanford shall 
73  diligently work to develop a plan to allow the removal of muck 
74  from Lake Jesup in Seminole County to proceed, which is 
75  contemplated by a Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission 
76  project to help restore the aquatic habitat in the lake. The 
77  commission shall report to the Legislature concerning the 
78  group’s progress toward this goal on October 1, 2010, and on the 
79  first day of each third month thereafter until any site needed 
80  for the disposal of muck has received all necessary state 
81  permits or it is determined that muck removal can proceed 
82  without a site for the disposal of the muck. The acquisition of 
83  a muck-disposal site is a conservation and restoration 
84  acquisition under the Florida Forever program created in s. 
85  259.105, Florida Statutes, the goal of which is to improve and 
86  sustain the ecological integrity of Lake Jesup. Each state 
87  agency is encouraged to expend funds to assist in the removal of 
88  muck from the bottom of Lake Jesup. 
89         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2010.