What is the Inland Protection Trust Fund?

The Inland Protection Trust Fund Program (IPTF) was created by the Legislature in 1986. Present authority for the program is found in section 376.3071, Florida Statutes (1993). The program is administered by the Department of Environmental Protection.

The IPTF program provides reimbursement to individuals or entities who have expended funds to remediate (clean up, detoxify and restore) property sites containing old petroleum storage tanks. These tanks corrode over time, slowly, silently and dangerously leaking their hazardous contents into the State's water supply. More than 18,000 such sites have been reported to exist in the State, and could qualify for reimbursement under this program.
Under the covenants of the Act, all site owners with petroleum leaks were to report them to the state in exchange for the state cleaning up the sites from the Trust Fund.

For more information about the 2009 Florida Statue governing Pollutant Discharge Prevention and Removal, click here

Why Is Funding for this Vital Program in jeopardy?

As many of you know, Florida’s 2009 budget was in a deficit of around $12 billion. Legislators are working on solutions to provide for the budget shortfall. One such solution that they have been looking at is raiding trust funds.

During the 2009 Florida legislative session, the Inland Protection Trust Fund (IPTF) -- which  pays for the underground storage tank clean-up and remediation -- was swept by the legislature during the budgeting process and the monies were diverted to the State’s General Fund.

Then, the legislature voted to bond 90 million dollars for fiscal year 2009-2010 for running the program, which will basically keep it on life support, but is economically devastating for all the companies that work in this field. This decision was a catastrophically negative move by the legislature for the ground water industry and the primary source of drinking water, the Floridian Aquifer. 

What Are the Consequences to the Trust Fund Being Raided?

The Inland Protection Trust Fund has been invaded for other government uses, which has resulted in delays in cleanup of sites and greater cleanup expenses due to these delays. As a result, Private real estate transactions, critical to the economy, have been severely curtailed due to fears of lack of funding. Also, imminent threat sites (site posing substantial threats to drinking water supplies) are increasing as cleanup funding is decreasing.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is alerting off-site property owners where contamination plumes are leaving program-eligible sites. These plumes are spreading due to no fault of property owners, but rather, due to lack of funding, and an increasing number of property owners are now facing potential third-party liability claims.

There is a current backlog of unfunded high priority work orders and this backlog has been growing throughout this fiscal year. Failure to timely address cleanups costs millions of dollars since plumes spread over short periods of time.

According to University of Florida economist Steve Labarbara, every $1.00 spent in cleanup of contaminated properties returns $3.00 to the Florida economy. Based on his studies, a reduction of $1 million from the cleanup program results in a $3 million loss to the economy; therefore, the last thing Florida needs to do at this time is reduce the appropriation for the cleanup program.

Information in this section supplied by FPMA. You can contact the FPMA by phone at (800) 523-9166 or (850) 877-5178, or by email fpma@fpma.org. Visit their website at www.fpma.org.

What is FGWA Doing to Help?

The Florida Ground Water Association is dedicated no only to the advancement of the ground water industry, but also to the protection of Florida’s ground water resources!

In June 2009, FGWA lobbyist, Phil Leary and FGWA Board Member Ben Huss, along with members of the Florida Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Store Association (FPMA), attended a meeting with State Senate President Jeff Atwater in Ft. Lauderdale and urged him not to sweep the Trust Fund in the 2010-2011 fiscal year, as the industry and environment would suffer serious negative consequences. 

Senator Atwater could not give us a formal commitment since the economic projections for the State’s budget for next year does not appear to be very positive. But, after hearing a detailed presentation on the IPTF program, he committed to helping as much as possible. He also strongly suggested that we communicate and educate House members on the IPTF program, too.

What Can You Do to Help?

The Florida Ground Water Association is the unified voice of Florida’s Ground Water Professionals! We encourage you to become the newest member of FGWA and help us fight to protect the funding and funding source for the Inland Protection Trust Fund – which is a dedicated Trust Fund for the cleanup of petroleum contamination.

FGWA members provide Unified Voice to in the advancement of the ground water industry and in the protection, the promotion, and the responsible development and use of ground water resources in the State of Florida.

The Florida Ground Water Association maintains an active presence in Tallahassee with resources that include full-time staff and a lobbying firm. Legislators look to FGWA when industry issues come up so they can make the educated decisions impacting consumers and the ground water industry.

With the support of its valued members, FGWA has consistently established reliable contacts in order to develop a network of trust that produces positive results for all ground water professionals and the future of the profession.

As a result of these many years of increasingly important involvement in representing ground water related issues, FGWA has become known as the voice of the ground water industry in Florida.  

As we have learned over the past few years, grass roots efforts by our FGWA members to communicate with legislators and government agency staff can be very successful. We need all FGWA members to protect the Inland Protection Trust Fund, and we urge you to contact your State Representative in support of fully funding the Inland Protection Trust Fund in the next state budget.

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