Recs for Springs Bill Approved by Water Panel

by Keith Laing
The News Service of Florida

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, March 11, 2010: Saying it heard “widespread support” for increasing inspection requirements for septic tanks near Florida springs, a Senate committee created last year to weigh a springs protection plan that ultimately sunk on Thursday approved a set of recommendations that will form the basis of a bill this year.

Last year, lawmakers couldn’t overcome concerns from builders over stricter pollution requirements for new developments as they tried to pass a plan to set pollution limits near springs. Under the plan, nitrogen limits would have been placed on septic tanks in use near the springs, virtually ensuring that advanced septic systems would be required, which raises cost concerns among some.

{sidebar id=1}Despite that fight, however, the Senate Select Committee on Inland Waters is wading back into the issue. No bill has begun moving yet, but the committee unanimously approved 13 recommendations Thursday that will be put into legislative language. Among them are a ban on solid and liquid residuals created by septic tanks that are allowed in other unrestricted public places.

“On the issue of septics, there is widespread support for creating an inspection program,” the report approved by the panel said. “Not one speaker spoke out against requiring inspections and most spoke highly of that idea.”

The committee spent the last several months touring the state holding public hearings – all in areas near springs.

Other recommendations in the Inland Waters proposal include expanding the definition of alternative water supply projects and restoring funding for conservation projects like Florida Forever, though a source for the money was not identified. The panel also recommends creating regional bodies to inspect septic tanks instead of a state agency or “water czar.”

The committee chairman, Sen. Lee Constantine, R-Altamonte Springs, said he hoped the recommendations, which he called “bold,” would convince federal regulators to allow the state to play a bigger role in enacting rules for pollution limits for state waters, generally. The federal Environmental Protection Agency is working on new pollution standards, but some in Florida fear they’ll be too strict. The EPA is in the mix because of lawsuits by environmentalists over what they say are lax clean water rules at the state level.

“We all know that we’re under a cloud of the EPA nutrient standards, and need to put up, frankly, a firewall that says Florida does more than anyone else and we’ve taken these bold initiatives,” he said.

{sidebar id=1}Perhaps mindful of the opposition that washed out the springs bill last year, Constantine quickly added “it is obviously a work in progress.”

However, the recommendations have enthusiastic support in the Inland Waters Committee. Sen. Steve Oerlich, R-Gainesville, said the need for a measure this year was dire.

“They used to say that we spent the first 150 years in Florida’s history draining out all the water,” he said. “Now we may have to spend the next 150 years trying to put it back. This is really a bold step that we need to transfer and turn it into some action. Every year that we delay is another year we get further behind the eight-ball.”

Oelrich even seemed to indicate that he could support the measure if costs increased as a result of it.

“As tough as it may seem in the days of now trying to keep taxes low – and I believe they should be low - but after all, this is water,” he said.

Constantine said the recommendations would be sent to bill drafting and the springs measure would start in the Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee.

This information originally published on March 14, 2010.

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