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Governor signs Clean Waterways Act

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This past week, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law the Clean Waterways Act, which institutes new regulations on polluters and threats to water quality such as septic tanks, sewage disposal facilities, fertilizer and stormwater systems.

According to the communications office of DeSantis, the legislation was developed based on recommendations by the Department of Environmental Protection and the Blue-Green Algae Task Force.

The legislation includes:

* Regulation of septic tanks as a source of nutrients and transfer of oversight from the Department of Health to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

* Contingency plans for power outages to minimize discharges of untreated wastewater for all sewage disposal facilities.

* Provision of financial records from all sanitary sewage disposal facilities so that DEP can ensure funds are being allocated to infrastructure upgrades, repairs, and maintenance that prevent systems from falling into states of disrepair.

* Detailed documentation of fertilizer use by agricultural operations.

* Updated stormwater rules and design criteria to improve the performance of stormwater systems statewide to specifically address nutrients.