House members have approved a bill limiting liability for owners of former phosphate mining lands, reviving a proposal that stalled in the Legislature last year amid concerns over environmental disclosure and consumer protections.
The House voted 87-24 to approve HB 167, sponsored by Dover Republican Rep. Lawrence McClure. The bill establishes a defense against strict liability for landowners if two conditions are met: a Department of Health study is conducted at the request of the owner, and the property is recorded with the local government as formerly mined phosphate land.
Debate focused on how future buyers and renters would be informed of a property’s history as phosphate mining land, with critics arguing the bill relies too heavily on public records and buyer due diligence.
“Unlike lead-based paint or some of these other disclosures, the mere fact that once upon a time a piece of machinery excavated a hole doesn’t inherently mean — unlike with lead-based paint, of course — that it’s a contaminant or carcinogen,” McClure said. “We are not adjusting any environmental regulations or processes. The federal and state processes on contamination still are applicable.”
St. Petersburg Democratic Rep. Lindsay Cross argued that the bill does not go far enough to ensure residents are informed of potential environmental risks and questioned how renters would be notified.
“It’s important that future homeowners or tenants, those who will be making these incredibly important decisions, be preemptively notified and well informed about any risk associated with environmental hazards,” Cross said. “The bill as written does not provide additional notification for future landowners, or particularly those in the renting community.”
Opposition also came from Jacksonville Democratic Rep. Angie Nixon, who cited personal experience growing up on contaminated land.
“As someone who was born and raised on a Brownville’s dump site, I know firsthand what it’s like to grow up and live on contaminated soil,” Nixon said. “My brother, having suffered from cancer when he was born, in addition to being born with a major abnormality being one kidney. So I would ask and urge my colleagues to vote down on this bill.”
But McClure said the bill does not alter existing environmental regulations or contamination standards, and argued the onus is on buyers to conduct due diligence on the land they purchase.
“Florida’s a buyer beware state, so it is incumbent upon the purchaser in normal real estate transactions to do their due diligence,” McClure said. “But above and beyond that, as I explained in the opening and previous committee stops, there will be a public record that it was formally mined and the Department of Health study, the data from that, will be publicly available.”
The legislation closely resembles measures filed during the 2025 Session that ultimately died after efforts to merge them into other bills failed. As previously reported by Florida Politics, critics last year argued the proposal overly protected landowners and made it more difficult to pursue claims related to contaminated lands. McClure acknowledged the bill’s history during closing remarks.
“And so we’re going to send this bill over early,” he said. “They’re going to have plenty of time to think through it, and hopefully they get it passed.”
The bill now heads to the Senate, where a companion measure has not yet been filed.
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Janelle Irwin Taylor of Florida Politics contributed to this report.