Florida Stormwater Rule Update

In 2020, the Florida Legislature passed Senate Bill (SB) 712, Clean Waterways Act (CWA), requiring the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) and the state’s water management districts (WMDs) to initiate rulemaking to update the statewide stormwater design criteria program by Jan. 1, 2021. A 2007 report provided to FDEP determined that the existing criteria were (in most cases) not adequate to attain the goal of 80 percent reduction in pollutant loadings that would cause or contribute to violations of state water quality criteria, or the goal of a 95 percent reduction in pollutant loadings when discharging to outstanding Florida waters.

A subsequent series of FDEP recommendations (drafted in March 2010) were never adopted. Section 5 of SB 712 directed FDEP and the WMDs to update the design criteria and the Environmental Resource Permit (ERP) Applicant’s Handbook using the most recent scientific information available.

Committee Review

To assist in that effort, FDEP appointed a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of 13 credentialed professionals representing a wide variety of stakeholders and interest groups, who were very familiar with stormwater permitting policy and practices throughout Florida.

Starting on Nov. 2, 2021, the TAC met over a dozen times to identify and outline recommendations for strengthening stormwater design and operation regulations. A final summary report of the TAC’s recommendations was published by FDEP in March 2022. The Florida Stormwater Association (FSA) was actively engaged in this process, developing a position paper on the design criteria.

Workshops and Hearing Held

As part of the rulemaking process, FDEP held four rulemaking workshops to review proposed revisions to Volume I of the ERP Applicant’s Handbook.

Members of FSA attended and actively participated in each workshop, providing detailed comments by the requested deadline of Dec. 28, 2022. In addition, as a part of the rulemaking effort, a letter was sent to the FDEP secretary from members of FDEP’s Technical Advisory Committee.

On Feb. 24, 2023, FDEP published a Notice of Proposed Rule in the Florida Administrative Register for proposed amendments to Chapter 62-330, FAC. On March 22, 2023, FDEP held a lower cost regulatory alternative (LCRA) hearing, to review the four alternatives to the proposed rule.

The FDEP is now reviewing the evidence and information submitted through the end of the hearing and is preparing a notice of change to

Committee (JAPC) comments. This change will require an additional review period and open the proposed rule for comments.

On March 24, 2023, FDEP published a Notice of Change to the Proposed Rule in the Florida Administrative Register. The change includes a revised estimated regulatory cost, and with the change, a 21-day comment and challenge period was required, which ended on April 14, 2023. Some concerns were expressed with some of the proposed changes, but there was support for FDEP to get the rule delivered to the Legislature for ratification this year. No legal challenges were filed on the rule and FDEP did initiate the process to introduce the bill for ratification during the 2023 legislative session.

Rule Ratification

Ratification of the rule is required by the Legislature due to its fiscal impact. The Legislature did not accept the bill for deliberation and ratification, thus the rule was not ratified. At this time, the rule is considered adopted, but not effective for implementation, leaving it in a holding pattern until next year’s session where FDEP is expected to file a ratification bill. S