40th Environmental Permitting Summer School

Stay current on laws/rules, Get up to speed on the latest ethics cases, Protect yourself in contracts, and Reduce your exposure to risks

Come join our panel of experts in a 4-hour interactive, small group setting, as they provide the practicing engineer with the keys to a successful practice, including the essential updates that govern the practice of engineering in the state of Florida, issues affecting federal contractors and subcontractors, and the latest “best practices” to manage professional risk to yourself and your firm. Our experts will help guide you with concrete strategies and tips for managing risks, including work practices, protective contract language, and deciphering the complexities of other risk management tools such as insurance and bonding. Additionally, you will receive the latest instruction on any changes to the rules and statutes affecting the engineer, as well as any guidance resulting from individual disciplinary and unlicensed practice cases. This session will also include a one-hour presentation on Engineer Ethics to fulfill the Florida Board of Professional Engineering Continuing Education requirement for the renewal cycle. During the presentation, we will discuss, in-depth, some specific disciplinary cases related to Ethics and a Case Study in Professional Engineer Ethics. Don’t miss this opportunity to tune up your professional practice knowledge and prepare yourself and your firm to manage professional risk. (As a bonus, you will also be satisfying your biennial Laws, Rules, and Ethics continuing education requirements in a far more rewarding way than taking another online quiz!) Instructors: Michael Harding, Kellie Tomeo

An excellent course designed to provide insight into the regulatory, planning, and water supply development programs of Florida’s five water management districts; includes a discussion of water resource development and water supply planning; adoption and implementation of MFLs; development of water reservations; Environmental Resource Permitting updates; secondary and cumulative impacts; discussion of changes to water management district budgeting and cooperative funding for water quality and water supply; and other emerging programs and issues; audience participation encouraged.

The USFWS and FWC carry out their responsibilities for the conservation and management of imperiled species through established regulations, policy, and guidance. These foundations and practices affect the way in which we conduct business while minimizing impacts from known threats, improving habitat, strengthening conservation and recovery efforts and, ultimately, improving the status of Florida’s imperiled species. Comprehensive planning and collaboration are essential to the process and agencies often work in partnership with stakeholders, landowners, and project proponents to achieve these goals. Members of the panel will review the regulations, policy, and programs in place for imperiled species while offering perspective from their role (e.g., agency, landowner, industry, consultant) in discussing creative and new strategies for addressing complex business and conservation challenges, their successes, and future implications. We hope to inspire the audience by contemplating the big picture.

Many imperiled wildlife species spend some if not all of their life-cycles in Florida. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has been working closely with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in developing effective regulations that promote the conservation and management of imperiled species and habitats in Florida. The members of this panel have been actively involved in the development and implementation of these important management practices, policies, guidelines, and regulations. The panel will review current federal and state regulations, and discuss emerging issues affecting imperiled wildlife species and habitat and how those issues could affect land uses in Florida. Bring your questions—this panel encourages panelist collaboration and audience participation!

With all the attention on emerging contaminants of concern, including PFOA/PFAs controversy, this course is a must-attend!  This panel of experts will provide timely updates on new ways the Department of Environmental Protection and EPA are addressing water quality issues; also includes basic as well as advanced discussion on water quality discharge permitting, whether from industrial, domestic, or other discharge sources; emphasis on current agency practices, and updates on pending legal changes; emerging water quality issues affecting industry, regulations and the general population. Come prepared with your questions!  This course is designed for extensive audience participation.

An excellent course designed to provide insight into the regulatory, planning, and water supply development programs of Florida’s five water management districts; includes a discussion of water resource development and water supply planning; adoption and implementation of MFLs; development of water reservations; Environmental Resource Permitting updates; secondary and cumulative impacts; discussion of changes to water management district budgeting and cooperative funding for water quality and water supply; and other emerging programs and issues; audience participation encouraged.

The panel of experts will provide a timely update on procedural and substantive considerations in permitting under the NPDES program, including stormwater; numeric nutrient criteria; program administration; case law update, including Sackett v. EPA regarding Waters of the U.S.; enforcement and citizen suits; additional compliance considerations; how to interpret complex regulations; examples of industrial and construction applications; implementation of stormwater NPDES; MS4 program; current agency practices; and emerging trends and issues. Audience participation is encouraged!

So, your proposed project is located over state-owned, Sovereign Submerged Lands, or in an Aquatic Preserve. How do you navigate the additional hurdles such as considerations over highly protected marine resources, greater limitations on project size or scope, limitations or even prohibitions on dredging, and a potential visit to the Governor and Cabinet? Come listen to a panel of experts as they provide an overview of the latest changes, emerging issues and challenges with regard to DEP’s proprietary authority over state-owed submerged lands and the special protections over designated Aquatic Preserves. The course includes recent developments regarding balancing the rights of riparian waterfront owners versus the public interest consideration in state-owned submerged land; a discussion of special permit conditions, practices in requesting authorization to use sovereign submerged land for private uses; and the process of gaining approval for your project from the Division of State Lands and the Governor and Cabinet. Bring your questions, because this course is designed for extensive audience participation!

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.

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.