FL H1103

Creates section 253.024, Florida Statutes to define and establish criteria for determining the ordinary high-water mark for navigable, nontidal waterbodies

Defines "ordinary high-water mark" as the highest reach of a waterbody in its ordinary condition, excluding high water season levels and freshets (floods from rain, melted snow, or water inundation)

Establishes that the ordinary high-water mark is an ambulatory boundary determined by examining bed and banks for where water presence and action are continuous enough to mark soil character distinct from banks and destroy agricultural crop value

Provides that vegetation effects serve as the principal test in locations with low, flat banks lacking well-defined soil demarcation, and permits consideration of permanent marks on ground or local objects as supporting evidence

Preserves public rights to use navigable waters and sovereignty submerged lands for common law public trust purposes up to the ordinary high-water mark and does not affect public ownership of submerged lands below that mark; effective July 1, 2012