Florida Clean Waterways Act: Wastewater, Septic, and BMP Rules

The Florida Clean Waterways Act, passed as Senate Bill 712 in 2020, sets nitrogen and phosphorus limits, inspection duties, and upgrade deadlines on wastewater utilities, septic system owners in certain watersheds, farmers, developers, and biosolid applicators, with daily civil penalties for anyone who falls out of compliance.¹ Deadlines stretch from July 2025 out to July 2034 depending on the waterbody and activity involved, and the penalty framework reaches $15,000 per day per offense in court.

Who the Law Reaches

The Act is broad because nutrient pollution has many sources. If you fit into one of the categories below, specific duties attach to you:

Sewage disposal facilities discharging into impaired or sensitive Florida waters.
Homeowners whose property sits on an acre or less inside a basin management action plan (BMAP), reasonable assurance plan, or pollution reduction plan area without access to central sewer.
Agricultural producers operating within a total maximum daily load or BMAP area.
Developers and owners of stormwater management systems.
Biosolid land application site operators.

If none of these describe you, the Act’s direct obligations largely don’t apply, though the water-quality standards it enforces still shape local permitting across the state.

Wastewater Facility Nutrient Limits and Deadlines

Under Florida Statutes § 403.086, “advanced waste treatment” means a facility’s output, on a permitted annual average basis, cannot exceed 3 mg/L total nitrogen, 1 mg/L total phosphorus, 5 mg/L CBOD5, and 5 mg/L suspended solids, with high-level disinfection on top.² Where DEP finds phosphorus is not a limiting nutrient in a particular waterbody, the phosphorus standard can be waived or adjusted until evidence changes.

The compliance clock depends on where the facility discharges:

Tampa Bay, Charlotte Harbor, Biscayne Bay, Sarasota Bay, and related tributaries were already subject to advanced waste treatment before the Act.
Facilities discharging into the Indian River Lagoon and its tributaries had to meet advanced waste treatment by July 1, 2025.
Facilities discharging into other impaired waterbodies or BMAP waters must comply by January 1, 2033.
If a waterbody is newly listed as impaired or placed under a new BMAP after July 1, 2023, affected facilities get 10 years from that determination.
By July 1, 2034, reclaimed water used for irrigation or land application inside a BMAP area must also meet the nitrogen and phosphorus limits where DEP determines the reclaimed water contributes to impairment.

Local governments were required to submit wastewater treatment plans identifying needed upgrades, estimated costs, and construction timelines by August 1, 2024.³ If your utility hasn’t told ratepayers what the upgrade will cost, that plan is the document to ask for.

Power Outage Contingency Plans

Section 403.086(2) also requires every sewage disposal facility to maintain a power outage contingency plan covering its collection system and pump stations. Rule 62-600.705 of the Florida Administrative Code, effective June 28, 2023, sets the content details.² The plan must be submitted with any new permit, renewal, or substantial permit revision, and DEP recommends it address portable generator inventories, fuel resources, mutual aid agreements, pump station assessments, and response team assignments.⁴ Failure to provide required secondary or advanced treatment, or to have a contingency plan in place, carries a $750 civil penalty for each day the violation continues.

Septic Upgrade Mandate for Homeowners in BMAP Areas

If your lot is one acre or smaller and sits inside a basin management action plan, reasonable assurance plan, or pollution reduction plan area, and no publicly owned or investor-owned sewer connection is available, § 403.067 requires an enhanced nutrient-reducing septic system (or other wastewater treatment system) that achieves at least 65 percent nitrogen reduction.⁵ DEP was required to adopt onsite sewage remediation plans as part of the applicable BMAPs no later than July 1, 2025.

A BMAP area is a watershed the state has identified as draining into a waterbody that fails water quality standards because of excess pollutants, with specific reduction targets attached. If your property is inside one, you’re part of the remediation plan regardless of whether you chose to be.

These systems are expensive. Full installation of an enhanced nitrogen-reducing system in Florida generally runs $20,000 to $35,000 once the treatment module, site evaluation, permitting, and construction are counted; the treatment module alone adds roughly $8,000 to $20,000 over a standard system, and engineering and design fees can add hundreds to several thousand more depending on site complexity. Florida’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund mainly provides low-interest loans to local governments for wastewater infrastructure, not direct grants to homeowners.⁶ Any homeowner assistance tends to come through the county or the specific BMAP, so the practical first calls are to your county government and the DEP district office.

Oversight of septic systems moved from the Department of Health to DEP effective July 1, 2021, though DOH staff at county health departments still handle most permitting and inspections under DEP’s direction.⁷

Agricultural Producers: BMPs, Records, and Inspections

Producers operating in a TMDL or BMAP area must implement the best management practices that the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services adopts for their activity, keep nitrogen and phosphorus application records, and make those records available for review. FDACS conducts onsite inspections of each enrolled producer at least once every two years, reviewing BMP documentation from the prior two years with particular focus on fertilizer applications. Inspections are prioritized in the BMAP areas for Lake Okeechobee, the Indian River Lagoon, the Caloosahatchee River and Estuary, and Silver Springs. For producers enrolled by rule rather than individually, FDACS inspects 20 percent of enrollments within BMAP areas each year.⁵

The payoff for proper implementation is a legal presumption of compliance with state water quality standards, plus release from liability for contamination costs under § 376.307(5) for the pollutants the practices address. DEP cannot pursue recovery of costs or damages for surface water or groundwater contamination caused by those pollutants while the practices stay in place. Lose the shield by failing to keep records, refusing inspections, or dropping the practices, and the producer is exposed to the full range of enforcement tools under Florida environmental law.

Stormwater Rules for Developers and System Owners

Florida Statutes § 373.4131 required DEP and the water management districts to begin rulemaking by January 1, 2021 to update stormwater design and operation rules, including the Environmental Resource Permit Applicant’s Handbook, with a focus on low-impact design practices and better nutrient removal.⁸

Two presumptions in the statute matter for owners and developers. A stormwater system designed in accordance with DEP or water management district treatment requirements is presumed not to cause or contribute to water quality violations. A system constructed, operated, and maintained under a valid permit carries the same presumption for its actual discharges. Neglect maintenance or breach a permit condition and you lose that presumption, which opens the door to enforcement and potential liability for downstream water quality problems. Water management districts can also set their own design and performance standards within their jurisdictions under DEP oversight, so requirements can vary by region above the statewide floor.

Biosolid Land Application

Biosolids, treated sewage sludge applied to land as fertilizer, are regulated under Florida Statutes § 403.0855. Any new land application site permit or renewal issued after July 1, 2020 had to meet heightened requirements, and all existing permits had to comply by July 1, 2022.⁹ The core requirements:

At least two feet of unsaturated soil between the biosolids and the water table at the time of application. Application is prohibited where the seasonal high water table is less than six inches from the surface or within six inches of the intended placement depth, unless a DEP-approved nutrient management plan and water quality monitoring plan show no violation of surface or groundwater standards.
The permit holder must be enrolled in the FDACS best management practices program, or operate within an agricultural operation that is enrolled, for the applicable commodity.
DEP rules adopted under this section do not take effect until the Legislature ratifies them.

Permits issued after July 1, 2020 must also include a reopener condition that lets DEP insert new compliance deadlines within one year of any future rules adopted under this section, with full compliance required within two years of those rules taking effect. A current biosolid permit is not a permanent safe harbor.

Penalties for Non-Compliance

The waterways statute has its own $750-per-day penalty under § 403.086 for failing to provide required waste treatment or a power outage contingency plan.² The broader enforcement statute, § 403.141, allows courts to impose civil penalties of up to $15,000 per offense, with each day the violation continues counted as a separate offense. For unauthorized domestic wastewater discharges, each day the cause goes unaddressed is a separate offense until a court order resolves it. Violators are also liable for the state’s costs to trace, control, and abate the pollution source, and to restore affected waters, property, and wildlife to prior condition.¹⁰ Months out of compliance can translate into exposure well into seven figures before restoration costs enter the picture.

1
Florida Senate. Senate Bill 712 (2020)
2
Florida Senate. Florida Code 403.086 – Sewage Disposal Facilities; Advanced and Secondary Waste Treatment
3
Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Clean Waterways Act Requirements for Wastewater and Onsite Sewage
4
Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Collection/Transmission System Power Outage Contingency Plans
5
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 403.067 – Establishment and Implementation of Total Maximum Daily Loads
6
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. About the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF)
7
Florida Senate. Florida Code 381.0065 – Onsite Sewage Treatment and Disposal Systems; Regulation
8
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 373.4131 – Statewide Environmental Resource Permitting Rules
9
Florida Senate. Florida Code 403.0855 – Biosolids Management
10
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 403.141 – Civil Penalties; Recovery of Costs