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The Florida Statutes

The 2023 Florida Statutes (including Special Session C)

Title XXVIII
NATURAL RESOURCES; CONSERVATION, RECLAMATION, AND USE
Chapter 373
WATER RESOURCES
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F.S. 373.802
373.802 Definitions.As used in this part, the term:
(1) “Department” means the Department of Environmental Protection, which includes the Florida Geological Survey or its successor agencies.
(2) “Enhanced nutrient-reducing onsite sewage treatment and disposal system” means an onsite sewage treatment and disposal system approved by the department as capable of meeting or exceeding a 50 percent total nitrogen reduction before disposal of wastewater in the drainfield, or at least 65 percent total nitrogen reduction combined from the onsite sewage tank or tanks and drainfield.
(3) “Local government” means a county or municipal government the jurisdictional boundaries of which include an Outstanding Florida Spring or any part of a springshed or delineated priority focus area of an Outstanding Florida Spring.
(4) “Onsite sewage treatment and disposal system” means a system that contains a standard subsurface, filled, or mound drainfield system; an aerobic treatment unit; a graywater system tank; a laundry wastewater system tank; a septic tank; a grease interceptor; a pump tank; a solids or effluent pump; a waterless, incinerating, or organic waste-composting toilet; or a sanitary pit privy that is installed or proposed to be installed beyond the building sewer on land of the owner or on other land on which the owner has the legal right to install such system. The term includes any item placed within, or intended to be used as a part of or in conjunction with, the system. The term does not include package sewage treatment facilities and other treatment works regulated under chapter 403.
(5) “Outstanding Florida Spring” includes all historic first magnitude springs, including their associated spring runs, as determined by the department using the most recent Florida Geological Survey springs bulletin, and the following additional springs, including their associated spring runs:
(a) De Leon Springs;
(b) Peacock Springs;
(c) Poe Springs;
(d) Rock Springs;
(e) Wekiwa Springs; and
(f) Gemini Springs.

The term does not include submarine springs or river rises.

(6) “Priority focus area” means the area or areas of a basin where the Floridan Aquifer is generally most vulnerable to pollutant inputs where there is a known connectivity between groundwater pathways and an Outstanding Florida Spring, as determined by the department in consultation with the appropriate water management districts, and delineated in a basin management action plan.
(7) “Springshed” means the areas within the groundwater and surface water basins which contribute, based upon all relevant facts, circumstances, and data, to the discharge of a spring as defined by potentiometric surface maps and surface watershed boundaries.
(8) “Spring run” means a body of flowing water that originates from a spring or whose primary source of water is a spring or springs under average rainfall conditions.
(9) “Spring vent” means a location where groundwater flows out of a natural, discernible opening in the ground onto the land surface or into a predominantly fresh surface water body.
History.s. 24, ch. 2016-1; s. 7, ch. 2023-169.