The Florida Senate
BILL ANALYSIS AND FISCAL IMPACT STATEMENT
(This document is based on the provisions contained in the legislation as of the latest date listed below.)
Prepared By: The Professional Staff of the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources
BILL: CS/SB 946
INTRODUCER: Environment and Natural Resources Committee and Senator Rodriguez
SUBJECT: Waste Facilities
DATE: March 25, 2025
ANALYST STAFF DIRECTOR REFERENCE ACTION
1. Barriero Rogers EN Fav/CS
2. CA
3. RC
Please see Section IX. for Additional Information:
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE - Substantial Changes
I. Summary:
CS/SB 946 prohibits a state or local governmental entity from approving any permit for the
construction or operation of any of the following facilities that are proposed to be located within
one mile of the C-9 impoundment:
• A municipal solid waste-to-energy facility;
• A pyrolysis facility;
• To the extent that it includes incineration of any type, a solid waste disposal facility.
The bill provides that this prohibition does not apply to a facility that was constructed and had an
operating permit authorizing incineration before July 1, 2025.
II. Present Situation:
Everglades Restoration
At one time, the Everglades system covered over 7 million acres of South Florida.
1
Water flowed
uninterrupted from the Kissimmee River to Lake Okeechobee through the “River of Grass” that
was the Everglades and then on to the Biscayne Bay estuaries, the Ten Thousand Islands, and
1
South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), Everglades, https://www.sfwmd.gov/our-work/everglades (last
visited Mar. 14, 2025).
REVISED: BILL: CS/SB 946 Page 2
Florida Bay.
2
By the early 1900s, land in the Everglades was being drained to make room for
agriculture and development, with little concern for the increasingly damaged ecosystem.
3
Early conservationists, scientists, and other advocates, however, were concerned about
environmental degradation and with their support, the Everglades National Park was created in
1947.
4
The following year, Congress authorized the Central and South Florida (C&SF) Project.
5
It addressed flood control, regional water supply, prevention of saltwater intrusion, water supply
to Everglades National Park, wildlife preservation, recreation, and navigation.
6
In spite of its stated purpose, the construction and operation of the C&SF Project had unintended
adverse effects on the Everglades system.
7
Some of these included extreme fluctuations in the
water levels of Lake Okeechobee, extreme fluctuations in the salinity levels of the
Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries caused by major changes in freshwater discharges,
detrimental changes in hydrologic conditions in freshwater wetland habitats, and fluctuations in
the salinity levels of Florida and Biscayne bays caused by unsuitable freshwater flows. Wading
bird populations are indicative of ecosystem health; by 1999, those populations had decreased by
85-90 percent and were steadily declining.
8
Further, the C&SF Project created water supply
shortages in Central and South Florida during dry periods, because the canals drained water off
the land too quickly without allowing for storage.
9
In 1994, in response to litigation over water quality issues in the Everglades, the State of Florida
adopted the Everglades Forever Act.
10
The Act established monitoring and protection for the
“Everglades Protection Area,” defined as “Water Conservation Areas (WCAs) 1, 2A, 2B, 3A,
and 3B, the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, and the Everglades
National Park.”
11
WCA 1 is the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge and is
managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
12
WCAs 2 and 3 are managed by the Florida
2
Id.; National Park Service, Everglades, https://www.nps.gov/ever/learn/historyculture/index.htm (last visited Mar. 3, 2025).
3
Id.
4
Id.
5
The Flood Control Act of 1948, Pub. L. No. 858, s. 203, 62 Stat. 1176.
6
SFWMD and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), C&SF Project Comprehensive Review Study Final Integrated
Feasibility Report and Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, i (Apr. 1999), available at
https://www.sfwmd.gov/sites/default/files/documents/CENTRAL_AND_SOUTHERN_FLORIDA_PROJECT_COMPREHE
NSIVE_REVIEW_STUDY.pdf.
7
Id. at iii.
8
Id.
9
Id. at iii.
10
SFWMD, Conceptual Design Document (1994), available at
https://www.sfwmd.gov/sites/default/files/documents/epp%20conceptual%20design.pdf; DEP, Everglades Forever Act,
https://floridadep.gov/owper/eco-restoration/content/everglades-forever-act-efa (last visited Mar. 3, 2025); Keith W.
Rizzardi, Alligators and Litigators: A Recent History of Everglades Regulation and Litigation, The Florida Bar, vol. 75, no.
3, 18 (March 2001), available at https://www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-journal/alligators-and-litigators-a-recent-history-
of-everglades-regulation-and-litigation/.
11
Section 373.4592(2)(i), F.S.; see also FLA. CON. art. II, s. 7(b). Those in the Everglades Agricultural Area who cause water
pollution within the Everglades Protection Area are primarily responsible for the abatement costs. Id.
12
SFWMD, Water Conservation Area 1 (Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge),
https://www.sfwmd.gov/recreation-site/water-conservation-area-1-arthur-r-marshall-loxahatchee-national-wildlife-refuge
(last visited Mar. 2, 2025). BILL: CS/SB 946 Page 3
Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
13
Everglades National Park is managed by the
National Park Service.
14
The long-term water quality objective for the
Everglades is to implement the optimal
combination of source controls, stormwater
treatment areas, advanced treatment
technologies, and regulatory programs to
ensure that all waters discharged to the
Everglades Protection Area achieve water
quality standards consistent with the
Everglades Forever Act.
15
In 1992 and 1996, Congress authorized the
Comprehensive Review Study (Restudy).
16
The Restudy reexamined the C&SF Project to
evaluate modifications that would help
restore the Everglades ecosystem. The
Restudy recommended a comprehensive plan
that included structural and operational
changes to the project in 1999. In response to
the Restudy, Congress authorized the
Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan
(CERP) in the Water Resources Development
Act of 2000.
17
CERP is a framework for
modifications and operational changes to the
C&SF Project that are necessary to restore,
preserve, and protect the South Florida
ecosystem, while providing for other water-
related needs of the region.
18
13
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Everglades Water Conservation Areas,
https://myfwc.com/fishing/freshwater/sites-forecasts/s/everglades-water-conservation-areas/ (last visited Mar. 2, 2025).
14
National Park Service, Everglades National Park, https://www.nps.gov/ever/index.htm (last visited Mar. 2, 2025);
SFWMD, 2016 South Florida Environmental Report, 3 (2016), available at https://issuu.com/southfloridawatermanagement/
docs/2016_sfer_highlights_final?e=4207603/33817547. This document contains the map shown on this page.
15
DEP, Everglades Forever Act, https://floridadep.gov/eco-pro/eco-pro/content/everglades-forever-act-efa (last visited Mar.
3, 2025).
16
SFWMD and USACE, C&SF Project Comprehensive Review Study Final Integrated Feasibility Report and Programmatic
Environmental Impact Statement at 1-3, available at
https://www.sfwmd.gov/sites/default/files/documents/CENTRAL_AND_SOUTHERN_FLORIDA_PROJECT_COMPREHE
NSIVE_REVIEW_STUDY.pdf.
17
Water Resources Development Act of 2000, Pub. L. No. 106-541, s. 601, 114 Stat. 2680 (2000); USACE, Central &
Southern Florida (C&SF) Project, https://www.saj.usace.army.mil/About/Congressional-Fact-Sheets-2024/C-SF-Project-C/
(last visited Mar. 3, 2025).
18
National Park Service, Everglades: Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP),
https://www.nps.gov/ever/learn/nature/cerp.htm (last visited Mar. 3, 2025). BILL: CS/SB 946 Page 4
One of the projects included in CERP is the C-9 Impoundment, which will consist of a four-foot
deep aboveground impoundment with pump stations, a gated spillway, culverts, a fixed weir
structure, an emergency overflow spillway, and perimeter seepage control canals.
19
The design
also includes a mitigated wetland buffer along the northern boundary.
20
The purpose of the
impoundment is to pump runoff from the nearby C-9 drainage basin and diverted water from the
western C-11 basin into the impoundment.
21
This project is currently in the planning phase, with
construction contracts scheduled to be awarded in 2027, subject to the availability of funds.
22
19
SFWMD, Broward County Water Preserve Areas: C-11 and C-9 Impoundments, 1-15 (2005), available at
https://www.sfwmd.gov/sites/default/files/documents/final_report_c9_c11_2-6-06.pdf.
20
Id.
21
USACE, CERP Broward County Water Preserve Areas Fact Sheet, https://www.saj.usace.army.mil/About/Congressional-
Fact-Sheets-2024/CERP-Broward-County-Water-Preserve-Areas-C/ (last visited Mar. 24, 2025). SFWMD, East Coast Buffer
Land Management Plan, 31 (2006), available at https://www.sfwmd.gov/sites/default/files/documents/lmp_ecb_2006.pdf
(showing map of C-9 Impoundment area).
22
USACE, CERP Broward County Water Preserve Areas Fact Sheet; USACE, Integrated Delivery Schedule 2024 Update, 1
(2024), available at
https://www.saj.usace.army.mil/Portals/44/IDS/IDS_2024_FINAL_20250122_v4.pdf?ver=QUlBSJjLQEmlJoJAytrtBA%3d
%3d. BILL: CS/SB 946 Page 5
Solid Waste and Waste-to-Energy Facilities
Energy recovery from waste is the conversion of non-recyclable waste materials into usable heat,
electricity, or fuel through processes, including combustion, gasification, pyrolization, anaerobic
digestion, and landfill gas recovery.
23
This process is often called waste-to-energy (WTE).
24
Municipal solid waste (MSW) can be used to produce energy at WTE plants and landfills.
25
MSW can contain:
• Biomass, or biogenic (plant or animal products) materials such as paper, cardboard, food
waste, grass clippings, leaves, wood, and leather products;
• Nonbiomass combustible materials such as plastics and other synthetic materials made from
petroleum; and
• Noncombustible materials such as glass and metals.
26
The process of MSW incineration is generally divided into three main parts: incineration, energy
recovery, and air-pollution control.
27
Most modern incinerators are equipped with energy-
recovery schemes, which produce WTE ash.
28
Three major classes of technologies are used to
combust MSW: mass burn, refuse-derived fuel, and fluidized-bed combustion.
29
The most
common WTE system in the U.S. is the mass-burn system.
30
At an MSW combustion facility, MSW is unloaded from collection trucks and placed in a trash
storage bunker.
31
An overhead crane sorts the waste and then lifts it into a combustion chamber
to be burned. The heat released from burning converts water to steam, which is then sent to a
turbine generator to produce electricity. The remaining ash is collected and taken to a landfill
where a high-efficiency baghouse filtering system captures particulates. As the gas stream travels
through these filters, more than 99 percent of particulate matter is removed. Captured fly ash
particles fall into hoppers (funnel-shaped receptacles) and are transported by an enclosed
conveyor system to the ash discharger. They are then wetted to prevent dust and mixed with the
bottom ash from the grate. The facility transports the ash residue to an enclosed building where it
is loaded into covered, leak-proof trucks and taken to a landfill designed to protect against
groundwater contamination.
32
23
EPA, Energy Recovery from the Combustion of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), https://www.epa.gov/smm/energy-
recovery-combustion-municipal-solid-waste-msw (last visited Mar. 3, 2025).
24
Id.
25
U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Biomass explained, Waste-to-energy (Municipal Solid Waste), Basics,
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/biomass/waste-to-energy.php (last visited Mar. 3, 2025).
26
Id.
27
Byoung Cho et al., Municipal Solid Waste Incineration Ashes as Construction Materials—A review, Materials, vol. 13, 2
(2020), available at https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7411600/.
28
Id.
29
Id.
30
EIA, Biomass explained: Waste-to-energy (Municipal Solid Waste), In-depth,
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/biomass/waste-to-energy-in-depth.php (last visited Mar. 3, 2025).
31
EPA, Energy Recovery from the Combustion of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), https://www.epa.gov/smm/energy-
recovery-combustion-municipal-solid-waste-msw#Technology (last visited Mar. 10, 2025).
32
Id. BILL: CS/SB 946 Page 6
About 90 percent of the energy produced by WTE plants is delivered to the electric grid.
33
The
remaining 10 percent consists of steam that some WTE facilities send to nearby industrial plants
and institutions.
34
Example of a WTE plant
35
Waste incineration first became popular in the U.S. in the first half of the 20th century as a way
to manage waste but declined after the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1963 forced facilities to
either adopt costly air pollution controls or shut down.
36
In the 1970s and 1980s, waste-to-energy
facilities rose again in popularity as a way to produce a low-cost energy alternative to coal,
which was considered by some at the time to be a renewable energy source. Now, the number of
incinerators has again declined nationally due to public concern about their environmental and
health impacts, as well as a loss in profitability.
37
33
U.S. Energy Information Administration, Waste-to-energy plants are a small but stable source of electricity in the United
States, https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=55900 (last visited Mar. 9, 2025).
34
Id.
35
Pinellas County, Waste-to-Energy Facility, https://pinellas.gov/waste-to-energy-facility/ (last visited Mar. 3, 2025)
(showing graphic of a mass-burn waste-to-energy plant).
36
University of Florida, Thompson Earth Systems Institute, Tell Me About: Waste Incineration in Florida (2022),
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/earth-systems/blog/tell-me-about-waste-incineration-in-florida/ (last visited Mar. 3,
2025).
37
Id. The major concern associated with MSW incineration is the air pollution caused by dioxin, furan, and heavy metals
originating from MSW. Cho, Municipal Solid Waste Incineration Ashes as Construction Materials—A review at 2. See also
C. Ferreira et al., Heavy metals in MSW incineration fly ashes, Journal de Physique IV, vol. 107 (2003), available at
https://jp4.journaldephysique.org/articles/jp4/abs/2003/05/jp4pr5p463/jp4pr5p463.html; Junjie Zhang et al., Degradation
technologies and mechanisms of dioxins in municipal solid waste incineration fly ash: A review, Journal of Cleaner
Production, vol. 250 (2020), available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S095965261934377X. BILL: CS/SB 946 Page 7
In Florida, there are currently 10 WTE facilities.
38
Florida has the largest capacity to burn MSW
of any state in the country.
39
Solid Waste Facility Permitting in Florida
In Florida, the governing body of a county has the responsibility to provide for the operation of
solid waste disposal facilities to meet the needs of all incorporated and unincorporated areas of
the county.
40
A county may enter into a written agreement with other parties to undertake some
or all of its responsibilities.
41
A solid waste management facility may not be operated, maintained, constructed, expanded,
modified, or closed without a permit issued by the Department of Environmental Protection
(DEP).
42
In addition to a solid waste management facility permit, WTE facilities may also
require air construction and operation permits.
43
DEP may only issue a construction permit to a solid waste management facility that provides the
conditions necessary to control the safe movement of wastes or waste constituents into surface or
ground waters or the atmosphere and that will be operated, maintained, and closed by qualified
and properly trained personnel.
44
Such facility must if necessary:
• Use natural or artificial barriers that can control lateral or vertical movement of wastes or
waste constituents into surface or ground waters.
• Have a foundation or base that can provide support for structures and waste deposits and
capable of preventing foundation or base failure due to settlement, compression, or uplift.
• Provide for the most economically feasible, cost-effective, and environmentally safe control
of leachate, gas, stormwater, and disease vectors and prevent the endangerment of public
health and the environment.
45
DEP may by rule exempt specified types of facilities from permit requirements if it determines
that construction or operation of the facility is not expected to create any significant threat to the
environment or public health.
46
DEP must allow WTE facilities to maximize acceptance and processing of nonhazardous solid
and liquid waste.
47
Ash from WTE facilities must be disposed of in a lined MSW landfill or a
38
DEP, Waste-to-Energy, https://floridadep.gov/waste/permitting-compliance-assistance/content/waste-energy (last visited
Mar. 3, 2025). The state had 11 WTE facilities until 2023 when a fire destroyed one in Miami-Dade County. See Mayor
Daniella Levine Cava, Memorandum on Site Selection for a Sustainable Solid Waste Campus and Update on Miami-Dade
County’s Solid Waste Disposal Strategy, 1 (2024), available at d https://documents.miamidade.gov/mayor/memos/09.13.24-
Site-Selection-for-a-Sustainable-Solid-Waste-Campus.pdf.
39
DEP, Waste-to-Energy.
40
Section 403.706(1), F.S.
41
Section 403.706(8), F.S.
42
See section 403.707(1), F.S.
43
Sections 403.707(6) and 403.087(1), F.S.; Fla. Admin. Code R. 62-210.300. See also DEP, Air Construction Permits,
https://floridadep.gov/sites/default/files/Air-Construction-Permits.pdf (last visited Mar. 10, 2024).
44
Section 403.707(6), F.S.
45
Id.
46
Section 403.707(1), F.S.
47
Section 403.707(1), F.S. BILL: CS/SB 946 Page 8
lined ash monofill, since an EPA study showed that ash from WTE facilities should not be
classified as hazardous waste.
48
Federal Regulations on Waste Incineration
Pursuant to the Clean Air Act, EPA has developed regulations limiting emissions of nine air
pollutants—particulate matter, carbon monoxide, dioxins/furans, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides,
hydrogen chloride, lead, mercury, and cadmium—from four categories of solid waste
incineration units: (1) municipal solid waste; (2) hospital, medical and infectious solid waste; (3)
commercial and industrial solid waste; and (4) other solid waste.
49
Emission limits may vary depending on the size and type of the facility (e.g., large versus small
municipal waste combustors) and whether the materials incinerated are hazardous.
50
In 2024,
EPA proposed stricter standards for large municipal waste combustion units.
51
EPA is also
considering requiring waste incinerators to report toxic releases to the toxic release inventory,
which tracks the management of certain toxic chemicals.
52
Pyrolysis and Gasification
Pyrolysis and gasification units convert solid or semi-solid feedstocks—including solid waste
(e.g., MSW, commercial and industrial waste, hospital/medical/infectious waste, sewage sludge,
other solid waste), biomass, plastics, tires, and organic contaminants in soils and oily sludges—
to useful products such as energy, fuels, and chemical commodities.
53
Pyrolysis is a process where materials are thermally decomposed or rearranged under process
conditions where extremely little to no oxygen is present.
54
Pyrolysis, which is also known as
devolatilization, is an endothermic process
55
that produces 75 to 90 percent volatile materials in
48
DEP, Waste-to-Energy, https://floridadep.gov/waste/permitting-compliance-assistance/content/waste-energy (last visited
Mar. 10, 2025).
49
EPA, Large Municipal Waste Combustors (LMWC): New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) and Emissions
Guidelines, https://www.epa.gov/stationary-sources-air-pollution/large-municipal-waste-combustors-lmwc-new-source-
performance (last visited Mar. 11, 2025). See 71 Fed. Reg. 27325-26 (adopting final rule regarding standards of performance
for new stationary sources and emission guidelines for existing sources: large municipal waste combustors); 40 CFR part 60.
50
See generally EPA, Clean Air Act Guidelines and Standards for Waste Management, https://www.epa.gov/stationary-
sources-air-pollution/clean-air-act-guidelines-and-standards-waste-management (last visited Mar. 11, 2025).
51
89 Fed. Reg. 4243, 4246 (Jan. 23, 2024) (proposing amendments to 40 CFR part 60). Large municipal waste combustors
combust more than 250 tons per day of MSW. 40 CFR 60.32b and 60.50b; EPA, Large Municipal Waste Combustors
(LMWC): New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) and Emissions Guidelines, https://www.epa.gov/stationary-sources-
air-pollution/large-municipal-waste-combustors-lmwc-new-source-performance (last visited Mar. 11, 2025).
52
EPA, Memorandum re: Petition for Rulemaking Pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act and the Emergency
Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, Requiring that Waste Incinerators Report to the Toxics Release Inventory, 1-2
(2024), available at https://peer.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/PET-001757_Incinerators_PetitionResponse_Ltr.pdf;
EPA, What is the Toxics Release Inventory?, https://www.epa.gov/toxics-release-inventory-tri-program/what-toxics-release-
inventory (last visited Mar. 11, 2025). U.S. facilities in different industry sectors must report annually how much of each
chemical they release into the environment and/or managed through recycling, energy recovery and treatment, as well as any
practices implemented to prevent or reduce the generation of chemical waste. Id.
53
EPA, Rulemaking on Pyrolysis and Gasification Units, https://www.epa.gov/stationary-sources-air-pollution/advance-
notice-proposed-rulemaking-pyrolysis-and-gasification (last visited Mar. 13, 2025).
54
86 Fed. Reg. 50296, 50299 (Sept. 8, 2021) (advance notice of proposed rulemaking regarding potential future regulation
addressing pyrolysis and gasification units).
55
Endothermic is a process where heat is absorbed by a chemical reaction, thus resulting in decreased temperature. BILL: CS/SB 946 Page 9
the form of gaseous and liquid hydrocarbons.
56
Through the application of heat, pyrolysis
disintegrates the long hydrocarbon bonds of the incoming feed materials and may generate tars,
oils, particulate matter, reduced sulfur and nitrogen compounds, and hazardous air pollutants
including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
57
Gasification is a process of converting feed materials into syngas (carbon monoxide and
hydrogen) and carbon dioxide.
58
The materials are gasified when they react with controlled
amounts of oxygen or steam at high temperatures. Oxygen is added in small amounts to maintain
a reducing (i.e., oxidation or combustion-preventing) atmosphere, where the quantity of oxygen
available is less than the amount needed for complete combustion of the feed material. The
process of gasification has endothermic and exothermic
59
phases but overall is an exothermic
process and requires an external heat source, such as syngas combustion, char combustion, or
steam.
60
III. Effect of Proposed Changes:
Section 1 amends s. 373.4592, F.S., regarding Everglades improvement and management.
The bill provides that, notwithstanding any law to the contrary, a state or local governmental
entity may not approve any permit for the construction or operation of any of the following
facilities that are proposed to be located within one mile of the C-9 impoundment, authorized by
the Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014:
• A municipal solid waste-to-energy facility;
61
• A pyrolysis facility;
62
• To the extent that it includes incineration of any type, a solid waste disposal facility.
63
The bill provides that this prohibition does not apply to a facility that was constructed and had an
operating permit authorizing incineration before July 1, 2025.
Sections 2 through 4 make conforming changes.
56
Id. (citing U.S. Dep’t of Energy, Benchmarking Biomass Gasification Technologies for Fuels, Chemicals, and Hydrogen
Production (2002), available at https://netl.doe.gov/sites/default/files/netl-file/BMassGasFinal_0.pdf).
57
Id. at 50299-300.
58
Id. at 50300. Syngas, the primary product of gasification, is a fuel and can be burned in boilers, gas engines, or turbines. It
can also be used as a chemical feedstock to produce other, more complex chemicals or hydrocarbon fuels. Id.
59
Exothermic is a process where heat is produced by a chemical reaction, thus resulting in elevated temperature.
60
Id.
61
“Municipal solid waste-to-energy facility” means a publicly owned facility that uses an enclosed device using controlled
combustion to thermally break down solid waste to an ash residue that contains little or no combustible material and that
produces electricity, steam, or other energy as a result. The term does not include facilities that primarily burn fuels other
than solid waste even if such facilities also burn some solid waste as a fuel supplement. The term also does not include
facilities that primarily burn vegetative, agricultural, or silvicultural wastes, bagasse, clean dry wood, methane or other
landfill gas, wood fuel derived from construction or demolition debris, or waste tires, alone or in combination with fossil
fuels. Section 377.814(2)(b), F.S
62
“Pyrolysis facility” means a facility that receives, separates, stores, and converts post-use polymers, using gasification or
pyrolysis. Section 403.703(27), F.S.
63
“Solid waste disposal facility” means any solid waste management facility that is the final resting place for solid waste,
including landfills and incineration facilities that produce ash from the process of incinerating municipal solid waste. Section
403.703(36), F.S. BILL: CS/SB 946 Page 10
Section 5 provides an effective date of July 1, 2025.
IV. Constitutional Issues:
A. Municipality/County Mandates Restrictions:
None.
B. Public Records/Open Meetings Issues:
None.
C. Trust Funds Restrictions:
None.
D. State Tax or Fee Increases:
None.
E. Other Constitutional Issues:
None.
V. Fiscal Impact Statement:
A. Tax/Fee Issues:
None.
B. Private Sector Impact:
None.
C. Government Sector Impact:
The bill may increase costs for local governments by limiting available locations for the
types of solid waste facilities included in the bill, making it more challenging to site new
facilities. If local governments are unable to identify suitable locations that comply with
the bill’s restrictions, they may be required to transport waste to facilities in other
counties or municipalities, potentially leading to higher disposal and transportation
expenses.
VI. Technical Deficiencies:
None.
VII. Related Issues:
None. BILL: CS/SB 946 Page 11
VIII. Statutes Affected:
This bill substantially amends the following sections of the Florida Statutes: 373.4592, 316.5501,
339.2818, and 373.036.
IX. Additional Information:
A. Committee Substitute – Statement of Changes:
(Summarizing differences between the Committee Substitute and the prior version of the bill.)
CS by Environment and Natural Resources on March 25, 2025:
• Reduces the prohibited area from two miles around Everglades-related sites and
certain federally and state-funded water storage and conveyance structures to one
mile around the C-9 impoundment authorized by the Water Resources Reform and
Development Act of 2014.
• Removes solid waste facilities and solid waste management facilities that do not
include incineration from the types of prohibited facilities.
• Clarifies that the restriction applies to both state and local permits.
• Clarifies that the bill does not apply to a facility that was constructed and had an
operating permit authorizing incineration before July 1, 2025.
• Removes the provision that the bill preempted permitting to the state and superseded
local government regulations.
B. Amendments:
None.
This Senate Bill Analysis does not reflect the intent or official position of the bill’s introducer or the Florida Senate.