In addition to helping engineers, planners and developers to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) at the federal level, Clementi Environmental’s keen knowledge of environmental resource permitting (ERP) rules in states such as Florida can be a vital resource for your construction and development plans.
Although not all development involves impacting wetlands, all development does involve the creation of stormwater ponds that discharge to other natural water bodies. In the state of Florida, all Environmental Resource Program permitting and state-owned submerged lands authorizations are now done in the district offices of the Department of Environmental Protection and in the St. Johns River, Suwannee River, Northwest Florida, South Florida, and Southwest Florida Water Management Districts.
All development in Florida must receive a permit from these five water management districts before any land can be scrapped or turned over. This Environmental Resource Permit (ERP) is required before beginning any construction activity that would affect wetlands, alter surface water flows, or contribute to water pollution.
Clementi Environmental is a full-service environmental consulting firm offering a thorough approach to make your property Florida Environmental Permit-compliant:
Wetland Delineations
The first step in wetland impact permitting is to delineate the wetland on the ground. This is done by our environmental consultants physically walking the perimeter of the wetland and setting wetland flags. These flags are then surveyed by a professional land surveyor. The survey is then incorporated into the site plan for the project.
Avoidance and Minimization Strategy Development
If there are natural wetlands on the site, the design engineer will need some assistance with the permit application to describe the wetlands on the site, along with sometimes setting the seasonal water elevations of the wetlands. When an impact to a wetland is proposed, Clementi Environmental staff works with the design team to formulate a design that can be permitted under state and/or federal rules.
Wetland Mitigation and Compensation Designs
There are several steps involved in the design of a wetland mitigation, all of which Clementi Environmental can perform. The first stage in permitting a wetland impact is to prove that the wetland impact is unavoidable. The next step is to show that the proposed impact has been reduced to the smallest possible. Once agency staff agrees that the impact is justifiable and has been minimized, then they will evaluate if the mitigation/compensation we have provided adequately offsets the proposed impacts.
Wetland/Upland Restoration and Maintenance Plans
Wetland mitigation can be creating wetlands from upland habitat, enhancing (fixing) existing wetlands that have been degraded by filling or invasion of nuisance and exotic species and/or enhancing preserved upland habitat. This requires on-site investigations and expertise to choose the compensation plan that is the least expensive possible for the client yet can be accomplished as designed in a reasonable time. The compensation plan must include maintenance and monitoring plans. The maintenance plan insures that upland and nuisance species do not increase in cover in excess of 5% or take over the mitigation area(s).
