Florida Statutes
Part VI - Water Supply; Water Treatment Plants (Ss. 403.850-403.892)
403.853 - Drinking water standards.

(1) The department shall adopt and enforce:

(a)1. State primary drinking water regulations that shall be no less stringent at any given time than the complete interim or revised national primary drinking water regulations in effect at such time; and
2. State secondary drinking water regulations patterned after the national secondary drinking water regulations.

(b) Primary and secondary drinking water regulations for nontransient noncommunity water systems and transient noncommunity water systems, which shall be no more stringent than the corresponding national primary or secondary drinking water regulations in effect at such time, except that nontransient noncommunity systems shall monitor and comply with additional primary drinking water regulations as determined by the department.

(2) Subject to the exceptions authorized pursuant to s. 403.854, state primary drinking water regulations apply to each public water system in the state, except that such regulations do not apply to any public water system which meets all of the following criteria; namely, that the system:
(a) Consists of distribution and storage facilities only and does not have any collection or treatment facilities;
(b) Obtains all of its water from, but is not owned or operated by, a public water system to which such regulations apply;
(c) Does not sell water to any person; and
(d) Is not a carrier which conveys passengers in interstate commerce.

(3) The department shall adopt and implement adequate rules specifying procedures for the enforcement of state primary and secondary drinking water regulations, including monitoring and inspection procedures, that comply with regulations established by the administrator pursuant to the federal act.
(4) The department shall keep such records and make such reports, with respect to its activities under subsections (1) and (3), as may be required by regulations established by the administrator pursuant to the federal act. Such records and reports shall be available for public inspection.
(5) No state primary drinking water regulation may require the addition of any substance for preventive health care purposes unrelated to the contamination of drinking water.
(6) Upon the request of the owner or operator of a transient noncommunity water system using groundwater as a source of supply and serving religious institutions or businesses, other than restaurants or other public food service establishments or religious institutions with school or day care services, the department, or a local county health department designated by the department, shall perform a sanitary survey of the facility. Upon receipt of satisfactory survey results according to department criteria, the department shall reduce the requirements of such owner or operator from monitoring and reporting on a quarterly basis to performing these functions on an annual basis. Any revised monitoring and reporting schedule approved by the department under this subsection shall apply until such time as a violation of applicable state or federal primary drinking water standards is determined by the system owner or operator, by the department, or by an agency designated by the department, after a random or routine sanitary survey. Certified operators are not required for transient noncommunity water systems of the type and size covered by this subsection. Any reports required of such system shall be limited to the minimum as required by federal law. When not contrary to the provisions of federal law, the department may, upon request and by rule, waive additional provisions of state drinking water regulations for such systems.
(7) Unless otherwise required by federal act, the department may require testing of public water supply systems only for those contaminants for which maximum contaminant levels have been set by the administrator or the department or for which the United States Environmental Protection Agency or the department has established a correlation between pollutant concentration and human health effects.
History.—s. 4, ch. 77-337; s. 1, ch. 79-358; s. 45, ch. 84-338; s. 45, ch. 86-186; s. 11, ch. 89-324; s. 103, ch. 97-101; s. 2, ch. 2001-270; s. 20, ch. 2012-205.