Florida Senate - 2024 SB 298
By Senator Polsky
30-00129-24 2024298__
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 coastal counties, beginning on a specified date, with
6 Resilient Florida Grant Program grants to fund
7 saltwater intrusion vulnerability assessments;
8 specifying the purpose of and requirements for the
9 assessments; requiring the department to update the
10 comprehensive statewide flood vulnerability and sea
11 level rise data set and make certain information
12 received from the saltwater intrusion vulnerability
13 assessments publicly available on its website;
14 requiring the department to provide cost-share funding
15 up to a specified amount for awarded grants;
16 specifying that certain coastal counties are not
17 required to contribute to the cost-share funding;
18 providing an effective date.
19
20 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
21
22 Section 1. Paragraph (b) of subsection (3) of section
23 380.093, Florida Statutes, is amended, and paragraph (e) is
24 added to that subsection, to read:
25 380.093 Resilient Florida Grant Program; comprehensive
26 statewide flood vulnerability and sea level rise data set and
27 assessment; Statewide Flooding and Sea Level Rise Resilience
28 Plan; regional resilience entities.—
29 (3) RESILIENT FLORIDA GRANT PROGRAM.—
30 (b) Subject to appropriation, the department may provide
31 grants to any each of the following entities:
32 1. A county or municipality to fund:
33 a. The costs of community resilience planning and necessary
34 data collection for such planning, including comprehensive plan
35 amendments and necessary corresponding analyses that address the
36 requirements of s. 163.3178(2)(f).
37 b. Vulnerability assessments that identify or address risks
38 of inland or coastal flooding and sea level rise.
39 c. For coastal counties beginning July 1, 2025, saltwater
40 intrusion vulnerability assessments that analyze the effects of
41 saltwater intrusion on the coastal county’s water supply and the
42 preparedness of the coastal county to respond to such a threat.
43 d. The development of projects, plans, and policies that
44 allow communities to prepare for threats from flooding and sea
45 level rise.
46 e.d. Preconstruction activities for projects to be
47 submitted for inclusion in the Statewide Flooding and Sea Level
48 Rise Resilience Plan and that are located in a municipality that
49 has a population of 10,000 or less fewer or a county that has a
50 population of 50,000 or less fewer, according to the most recent
51 April 1 population estimates posted on the Office of Economic
52 and Demographic Research’s website.
53 f.e. Feasibility studies and the cost of permitting for
54 nature-based solutions that reduce the impact of flooding and
55 sea level rise.
56 2. A water management district identified in s. 373.069 to
57 support local government adaptation planning, which may be
58 conducted by the water management district or by a third party
59 on behalf of the water management district. Such grants must be
60 used for the express purpose of supporting the Florida Flood Hub
61 for Applied Research and Innovation and the department in
62 implementing this section through data creation and collection,
63 modeling, and the implementation of statewide standards.
64 Priority must be given to filling critical data gaps identified
65 by the Florida Flood Hub for Applied Research and Innovation
66 under s. 380.0933(2)(a).
67 (e)1. A saltwater intrusion vulnerability assessment
68 conducted pursuant to sub-subparagraph (b)1.c. must include an
69 analysis of all of the following information:
70 a. The coastal county’s primary water utilities.
71 b. Current maps of the coastal county’s freshwater
72 wellfields and latest saltwater intrusion impact lines.
73 c. Projections of saltwater intrusion over the next decade,
74 including specific wells that may be impacted during that
75 timeframe.
76 d. The costs necessary to relocate freshwater wellfields
77 anticipated to be impacted, including current projects that are
78 underway to relocate the freshwater wellfields.
79 2. The department shall do all of the following:
80 a. Use the information contained in a coastal county’s
81 saltwater intrusion vulnerability assessment to update its
82 comprehensive statewide flood vulnerability and sea level rise
83 data set under subsection (4).
84 b. Make publicly available on the department’s website any
85 appropriate information from a saltwater intrusion vulnerability
86 assessment it receives from coastal counties pursuant to this
87 paragraph.
88 c. Provide 50 percent cost-share funding up to $250,000 for
89 each grant awarded under this paragraph. A coastal county with a
90 population of 50,000 or less is not required to contribute to
91 the cost share.
92 Section 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.