Miami-Dade County Lake Belt Mitigation Plan; mitigation for mining activities within the Miami-Dade County Lake Belt.

(1) The Legislature finds that the impact of mining within the rock mining supported and allowable areas of the Miami-Dade County Lake Belt Plan adopted by s. 373.4149(1) can best be offset by the implementation of a comprehensive mitigation plan. The Lake Belt Mitigation Plan consists of those provisions contained in subsections (2)-(8). The per-ton mitigation fee assessed on limestone sold from the Miami-Dade County Lake Belt Area and sections 10, 11, 13, 14, Township 52 South, Range 39 East, and sections 24, 25, 35, and 36, Township 53 South, Range 39 East, shall be used for acquiring environmentally sensitive lands and for restoration, monitoring, maintenance, and other environmental purposes. It is the intent of the Legislature that the per-ton mitigation fee not be a revenue source for purposes other than enumerated in this section. Further, the Legislature finds that the public benefit of a sustainable supply of limestone construction materials for public and private projects requires a coordinated approach to permitting activities on wetlands within Miami-Dade County in order to provide the certainty necessary to encourage substantial and continued investment in the limestone processing plant and equipment required to efficiently extract the limestone resource. It is the intent of the Legislature that the Lake Belt Mitigation Plan satisfy all local, state, and federal requirements for mining activity within the rock mining supported and allowable areas.

(2) To provide for the mitigation of wetland resources lost to mining activities within the Miami-Dade County Lake Belt Plan, effective October 1, 1999, a mitigation fee is imposed on each ton of limerock and sand extracted by any person who engages in the business of extracting limerock or sand from within the Miami-Dade County Lake Belt Area and the east one-half of sections 24 and 25 and all of sections 35 and 36, Township 53 South, Range 39 East. The mitigation fee is imposed for each ton of limerock and sand sold from within the properties where the fee applies in raw, processed, or manufactured form, including, but not limited to, sized aggregate, asphalt, cement, concrete, and other limerock and concrete products. The mitigation fee imposed by this subsection for each ton of limerock and sand sold shall be 25 cents per ton, beginning on January 1, 2016; 15 cents per ton beginning on January 1, 2017; and 5 cents per ton beginning on January 1, 2018, and thereafter. To pay for seepage mitigation projects, including groundwater and surface water management structures designed to improve wetland habitat and approved by the Lake Belt Mitigation Committee, and to upgrade a water treatment plant that treats water coming from the Northwest Wellfield in Miami-Dade County, a water treatment plant upgrade fee is imposed within the same Lake Belt Area subject to the mitigation fee and upon the same kind of mined limerock and sand subject to the mitigation fee. The water treatment plant upgrade fee imposed by this section for each ton of limerock and sand sold shall be 6 cents per ton, and the collection of this fee shall cease once the total amount of proceeds collected for this fee reaches the amount of the actual moneys necessary to design and construct the water treatment plant upgrade, as determined in an open, public solicitation process. The water treatment plant upgrade fee imposed by this section expires July 1, 2018. Any limerock or sand that is used within the mine from which the limerock or sand is extracted is exempt from the fees. The amount of the mitigation fee and the water treatment plant upgrade fee imposed under this section must be stated separately on the invoice provided to the purchaser of the limerock or sand product from the limerock or sand miner, or its subsidiary or affiliate, for which the fee or fees apply. The limerock or sand miner, or its subsidiary or affiliate, who sells the limerock or sand product shall collect the mitigation fee and the water treatment plant upgrade fee and forward the proceeds of the fees to the Department of Revenue on or before the 20th day of the month following the calendar month in which the sale occurs. The proceeds of a fee imposed by this section include all funds collected and received by the Department of Revenue relating to the fee, including interest and penalties on a delinquent fee. The amount deducted for administrative costs may not exceed 3 percent of the total revenues collected under this section and may equal only those administrative costs reasonably attributable to the fee.