Environmental Service: Real Results
November/December 2013
This Environmental Service: Real Results bulletin will be sent out monthly to acknowledge the key
achievements coming from the Department’s regulatory districts and divisions. Through their firsthand
efforts, Florida’s customers and the environment are being better served – and often times with a significant
cost-savings to the state.
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Air Resource Management
Central District
Office of Emergency Response
Northeast District
Florida Geological Survey
Northwest District
Waste Management
South District
Water Resource Management
Southeast District
Southwest District
Air Resource Management
• Director Brian Accardo engaged in technical and high-level policy discussions with other state air pollution
control directors, local government representatives and EPA at the Southeastern States Air Directors
meeting in Charleston, S.C.
• Florida’s 2013 Air Network Monitoring Plan received full EPA approval, with no contingencies, which
confirms the Department is meeting or exceeding all current regulatory requirements.
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Office of Emergency Response
• OER staff participated in the Annual Florida Power and Light Spill Drill exercise and equipment
deployment practice in West Palm Beach. The drill prepares response personnel in the event of an oil spill
occurrence.
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Florida Geological Survey
• FGS Director Jon Arthur recently returned from a trip to China where he presented three lectures. The
first two, at the International Research Center on Karst by the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization in Guilin, China, explained sinkhole types and occurrences, and karst aquifer
vulnerability. The third lecture, about aquifer vulnerability modeling, was given at the Department of
Geographical Sciences, Southwest University, Chongquin. Arthur also spoke in Washington, D.C. to the
National Research Council about FEMA-funded projects and sinkhole-related issues.
• Lee Hartman, working with FGS North Florida Project for the National Park Service, took second place at
the Seven Hills Regional User Group for GIS (SHRUG) Workshop this week at the FSU Convention Center
in Tallahassee with one of his two posters titled “Geologic Mapping in Two National Park Service Units
in Northeast Florida.” The poster summarizes the Florida Geological Survey mapping of the surficial and
subsurface geology for the National Park Service at Fort Matanzas and Castillo de San Marcos National
Monuments.
• Michelle Ladle who works with FGS in data management and GIS won third place for a poster she
submitted to SHRUG GIS Workshop at the FSU Convention Center in Tallahassee. The poster was
titled “Risk and Liability Analysis Modeling for Hurricane Damage on Florida Bridges: A Geographical
Information System Application.” The poster summarizes a risk and liability model, aimed to better
understand the impacts due to hurricanes on bridges in Florida.
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Waste Management
• Division representatives participated on seven panels at the 2013 Florida Brownfields Conference in
West Palm Beach. The diverse stakeholders attending included property owners, developers, local, state
and federal agencies, environmental professionals, land planners, community leaders, legal experts,
financial and insurance industry reps, and grassroots citizens affected by, and involved in the cleanup,
redevelopment and restoration of Florida’s brownfield sites.
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Water Resource Management
• A simple GIS add-in tool, called MHW Viewer, has been developed by the Division of Water Resource
Management’s Beaches, Mining and ERP support program staff to easily access and view historical
shoreline changes over the past 50 years, tremendously reducing the time it takes to gather this type of
data.
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Central District
• The District’s Compliance Assurance Program reached a major milestone after months of planning.
Dozens of CAP inspectors gathered to select the facilities they will inspect in the coming year. They have
already committed to nearly 1,200 inspections putting emphasis on “overlap” which occurs at facilities
regulated by more than one program. Overlap inspections offer broader reaches in protecting the
environment and better efficiency.
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Northeast District
• Due to extensive analytical history demonstrating contaminant mass stability at a former wire fabricator in
Jacksonville, the District evaluated a possible change in the facility’s sampling and reporting requirements
from biennial to annual, resulting in a cost-savings of about $6,000/year. The analytical history provided
the reasonable assurance that sampling could be reduced without impacting the environment.
• During a review process, district staff determined that a DOT rest area wastewater treatment facility
in Madison County could reduce sampling frequency for three parameters and because it had been
operating in compliance, the facility qualified for a 10-year rather than five-year permit. While the
sampling frequency has been reduced, regular monitoring at this site will ensure protection of the
environment will not be compromised. As a result, Madison County will save approximately $16,700.
• District staff met with Sandhill Recycle Center owner to discuss less expensive stormwater treatment
designs. The engineer was able to modify his design saving the owner about $24,500. The less expensive
designs will provide necessary treatment of storm-water runoff for water quality assurance.
• After district review, it was found that the Renessenz industrial wastewater treatment facility has been
operating in compliance and could eliminate monthly metals testing and annual acute whole effluent
toxicity testing. This saves the facility about $29,800 in sampling and surveillance fees over the next five
years with no environmental impact.
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Northwest District
• Staff initiated communication between the Division of State Lands and a lessee regarding their docking
facility and qualification for House Bill 999 discounts on lease fees. The facility was erroneously operating
as a multi-family residential docking facility. The correction saves the facility $7,000 in annual lease fees.
• The District was able to issue a water main distribution system certification clearance within 10 minutes
ensuring an uninterrupted water supply to residents. This was made possible by the newly implemented
electronic submittal process.
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South District
• The District permitting and engineering team worked with Collier County Utilities to exempt disposal of a
scrubber water blowdown wastewater stream at both the North and South Water Treatment Plants. This
will save the county recurring permitting and consulting fees of about $5,000 per permit cycle at each
plant.
• The District partnered with the Fort Myers Imaginarium in Lee County for the second annual Solar
Energy Cookoff Challenge for students grades K-12. The two-part competition encompasses the design
of a functional solar cooker and using the cooker to create a food dish. The competition was developed
to provide a real world solar thermal challenge. More than 500 students and parents attended with 20
elementary school, 22 middle school and 19 high school teams.
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Southeast District
• The Town of Davie recently debuted its new Water Treatment and Water Reclamation Facility. Working
closely with district staff to identify the permitting process, the town will save more than $100,000/year
using state of the art technology for treatment and reuse, while maintaining environmental protection.
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Southwest District
• District staff participated in GIS Day at the University of South Florida hosted by the USF College of
Public Health, Department of Global Health. Speakers from DEP, DOH, the U.S. Geological Survey and
Hillsborough County Planning Commission shared how GIS is used in each area. DEP’s GIS library
contains more than 800 spatial data layers for analysis -- of those more than 300 are updated every night
with information on spring sheds, air monitoring, restoration areas and oil spill recovery projects.
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