40th Environmental Permitting Summer School

Transportation and utility infrastructure in Florida continues to evolve on multiple fronts as technology, travel patterns, and resiliency planning influence how our infrastructure is designed, funded, and utilized. This panel gathers engineers, economic specialists, and planners to discuss how their work is evolving in the face of these changes.

In Florida, the Uniform Mitigation Assessment Method (UMAM) is used by local, state and federal regulatory agencies to determine the amount of mitigation necessary to offset impacts to wetlands and other surface waters and the number of mitigation credits to be assigned to a mitigation bank. This course will focus on UMAM fundamentals with additional discussion reflecting any recent policy or rule changes under consideration by the FDEP and the panel’s experience with thousands of individual UMAM assessments. Audience participation is encouraged.

This panel of experts will discuss the results of an active 2026 legislative session, the latest with the Live Local Act and how local governments are responding, as well as the latest Florida planning trends. The panel will also discuss the direction of land use in the state, including discussion of state preemption. This course is updated every year to discuss new and anticipated legislation, emerging issues and problems, and examples of local government innovation. Bring your questions, as audience participation and debate is highly encouraged!

Expert testimony can make or break adversarial proceedings. This session shows lawyers how to manage experts effectively, protect their opinions under applicable legal standards, and elicit clear, credible, and persuasive testimony. It also shows PhDs, engineers, and other technical experts how to deliver defensible work, withstand challenges, and communicate opinions with greater impact. This session will teach lawyers how to best serve their clients when working with experts and teach experts how to make themselves highly valued and sought-after partners who clients and counsel will want to retain again and again.

Wetlands provide natural, sustainable, and environmentally beneficial water quality improvement. This exciting course will include a detailed overview of treatment wetland applications, design and permitting, and recent trends and innovations to address some of the state’s most complex challenges associated with surface water quality and water supply shortages. Surface water quality protection will be highlighted by how SFWMD is using treatment wetlands to restore and protect ecologically sensitive areas of South Florida. The Everglades Stormwater Treatment Areas (ESTAs) include a stringent water quality-based effluent limit (WQBEL) for phosphorus concentration. The Northern STAs (NSTAs) are constructed to reduce nutrient load for water discharging into Lake Okeechobee or the Caloosahatchee or St. Lucie Estuaries.  Water resource augmentation using treatment wetlands will be highlighted by multiple projects that reuse wastewater effluent providing multi-functional and multi-beneficial systems that protect water quality, enhance water availability, and protect public health. Recent advancements include new interpretations of the Florida Administrative Code to better target natural recharge areas for groundwater augmentation, couple treatment wetlands with groundwater recharge via injection, and include treatment intensification to provide treatment of micropollutants, including unregulated contaminants and PFAS, in potable reuse applications.

This session will address the types of permits (CCCL, ERP, JCP) that apply to marine-related projects and includes presentations on how the ecology and biology of Florida’s seagrasses and mangroves drive the reality of regulatory responses; what restoration options and assessment strategies are available and appropriate; the challenges of the permitting process and the importance of establishing realistic restoration goals that can be measured as well as attained. Also, some focus will be given to UMAM assessments for seagrass impacts and mitigation; living shorelines, mangrove restoration and other estuarine restoration techniques; and restoration site selection, techniques, and monitoring in the context of the regulatory environment. This course provides excellent coverage of a very complex subject.

This session will provide an overview of policies and regulations that link disaster mitigation policy to climate resiliency issues. The presentation will explore these linkages as well as room for improvement in them. With major storms continuing to impact Florida every few years, agency orders are also a policy implication to be considered, both in short-term response and long-term planning factors. Case studies will be presented that harmonize the concepts of planning for, or responding to, disasters and incorporating aspects of future resiliency into projects. Finally, the session will also explore an important relationship with insurance and funding mechanisms, some of which provide dual benefits in the disaster mitigation and recovery realm as well as the flexibility to add components that address future resiliency.

Recent federal policy shifts have altered or rolled back several carbon-related initiatives adopted in prior years. While Florida does not maintain statewide carbon mandates, many businesses made operational, capital, and strategic decisions in response to earlier federal policies. This session brings together representatives from mining, power generation, ports, and municipalities to discuss how they are evaluating prior investments, adjusting compliance strategies, and planning amid regulatory uncertainty. The discussion will address cost implications, operational flexibility, infrastructure planning, and lessons learned from rapid policy change.

Florida’s mitigation banking industry continues to rapidly evolve as regulatory agencies, bankers, consultants, and permittees navigate changing policy, market demands, and implementation challenges. This course will provide a focused update on key regulatory and operational developments impacting mitigation banking in Florida, including implementation of Senate Bill 492 and its evolving application. Attendees will also hear updates from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and gain insight into current draft revisions to Florida’s mitigation banking rule, with particular attention to financial assurances and related legal and regulatory considerations. Designed for environmental professionals with a working knowledge of mitigation banking, this session offers a practical look at the latest policy shifts and what they may mean for future mitigation bank operations and project permitting throughout the state.

Beaches are a valuable resource in Florida, as they provide storm protection to upland infrastructure, nesting habitat to sea turtles, and recreational value to tourists and locals. Since coastal development and navigation inlets have interrupted the natural littoral drift of sediment along much of Florida’s coastline, it is necessary to nourish these sandy beaches on a recurring basis. Additional development within this dynamic and sensitive coastal beach environment requires a special permit from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. This course examines the regulatory framework and practical aspects of Florida’s beach management and Coastal Construction Control Line programs and covers current agency procedures and practices; emerging agency policy; and special permitting considerations for storm impact planning and emergency response, including appropriate use of coastal armoring structures. Always a timely and informative course.

This course presents legal and practical strategies for site remediation in a variety of scenarios. Case studies will focus on creative solutions, regulatory flexibilities, and innovative technologies used to achieve site closures. A must-attend, timely, and informative course designed for active audience participation.

This course provides an overview of the latest developments and best practices in tools available to non-federal entities to comply with the federal Endangered Species Act. Section 10 of the ESA allows for incidental take permits or enhancement of survival permits that provide durable, long-term regulatory assurances that are not available under the federal consultation process of ESA Section 7. These tools have been widely used across the country but less so in Florida. This course will provide a roadmap for how to consider these tools for your projects, lessons learned from successful plans, and pitfalls to avoid. The panel will also discuss how recent court decisions and regulatory changes may influence this key provision of the ESA. Highly relevant case studies will be provided from Florida, the eastern United States, and around the country.