2020 Annual Conference Agenda - Online Event

1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
[Pre-Conference]
2.0 credits

Getting Maximum Use of Your Stormwater BMPs [Pre-Conference Workshop]

Stormwater Best Management Practices are often the primary method to improve surface water quality and meet water quality criteria and permit conditions in your jurisdiction.  This workshop will focus on the information needed to determine the types of BMPs best suited for watershed goals and site conditions, practical experience from past BMP designs, and innovative applications of BMPs.  Case studies will be presented.

Brett Cunningham, PE, Senior Vice President
Jones Edmunds & Associates

Jeff Herr, PE, DWRE, National Stormwater Leader
Brown and Caldwell

Shane Williams, PhD, PE, Stormwater Engineer
Alachua County

Opening Session

In keeping with the 2020 year, this year’s Conference will be Building a Clear Vision in Stormwater Management. The opening session will focus on challenges and solutions in Florida water quality programs.

Kelli Hammer Levy, President
Florida Stormwater Association

Kevin Ruane, Mayor
City of Sanibel

Tom Frazer, Chief Science Officer
State of Florida

10:10 AM – 10:55 AM
[Track A]
0.75 credits

2020 Legislative Session Review

Florida water policy continues to be active in 2020!  The Courts, Legislature and regulatory agencies have all acted in one or more areas of water policy over the past year.  The session will examine what was introduced, what passed and failed in 2020, and what might be returning for 2021.  Attendees will have a chance to review the future of water policy and how it will affect water quality improvement programs in Florida.

Kurt Spitzer, Lobbyist
Florida Stormwater Association

Incentivizing Stormwater Management for Older Florida Communities

Sarasota County’s pre-1980 communities often lack stormwater management plans. Many of these communities are coastal and susceptible to stormwater related damages.  This presentation describes successful practices in voluntary retrofit clean air management programs in the US and abroad and how we can adopt from their learnings to develop retroactive stormwater management practices in Florida.

Mollie Holland, Neighborhood Environmental Stewardship Team Coordinator
Sarasota County

Bulent Yavuz, PhD, President
Eurasia Strategic Consultancy

Break in Exhibit Hall

Out of Sight, Out of Mind - Biosolids

Biosolids management continues to be a concern and the subject of ongoing regulatory and legislative review. This presentation will provide a perspective on FDEP’s activities of the last two years regarding the FDEP Biosolids Technical Advisory Committee and the updated Biosolids Rule (62-640 F.A.C.).  The presentation will also look at the cost avoided with better management of biosolids.

Tony Janicki, PhD, President
Janicki Environmental

Jon Perry, Scientist
Janicki Environmental

Stormwater Outfall Resiliency Master Planning in Nation's Oldest City

The City of St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied settlement in the US.  The City is at risk with rising sea levels impacting numerous historic sites, cultural resources and infrastructure.  The City has initiated resiliency efforts to address these challenges including a Master Plan to prioritize the existing stormwater outfalls for retrofitting.

Jessica Beach, PE, Stormwater Engineer
City of St. Augustine

Mark Ellard, PE, CFM, DWRE, ENV SP, Senior Principal, Water Resources
Geosyntec Consultants

Lunch Break

Basin Management Action Plans in the Northern Everglades System

During 2019, Basin Management Action Plan (BMAP) updates for the Caloosahatchee, Lake Okeechobee, and St. Lucie watersheds were developed as part of an adaptive management approach and to meet the deadline in the Governor’s Executive Order 19-12. This session will discuss the approach developed for these BMAPs.

Sara Davis, Environmental Manager
FDEP

Theodore Saltos, Environmental Consultant
FDEP

Kevin Coyne, Program Administrator
FDEP

Cooperative Management Initiative for St. Joseph Bay

The Northwest Florida Water Management District and cooperating agencies have initiated a multifaceted effort to improve the understanding of processes affecting St. Joseph Bay and to define management strategies to protect this ecologically rich public resource. Components of this effort include water quality, hydrodynamic, ecological analysis, and  stormwater management.  This session will review this effort and share the strategies developed.

Paul Thurman, PhD, Environmental Scientist IV
NWFWMD

Break in Exhibit Hall

Future Conditions 100 Year Flood Map for Resiliency

Broward County is addressing future resiliency by adopting a Countywide 100 year flood map that will be used for regulatory purposes to guide development and infrastructure design decisions.  The future flood map reflects integrated model projections of future sea level rise, rainfall depth increase, groundwater increases, and future development. This presentation will review the efforts to develop extreme future rainfall scenarios with the goal of reducing associated uncertainties in determining future rainfall using advance technical approaches.

Mark Ellard, PE, CFM, DWRE, ENV SP, Senior Principal
Geosyntec Consultants

John Loper, PE, Associate Vice President
Taylor Engineering

Cooperative Efforts Succeed in Improving Wakulla Spring Water Quality

The Northwest Florida Water Management District, local governments and stakeholders are collaborating to restore Wakulla Spring, one of the largest springs in Florida. Projects totaling more than $422 million include septic-to-sewer conversions, wastewater treatment plant upgrades and land acquisition. This session will review data indicating that these water quality projects are succeeding in decreasing nitrate levels and approaching the established Total Maximum Daily Load.

Jerrick Saquibal, PE, CFM, Chief, Bureau of Resource Projects and Planning
NWFWMD

Break in Exhibit Hall

Emerging Technologies ™

FSA’s practice of highlighting the latest developments in stormwater technologies and services from the private sector will be continued this year and features the top firms from Florida and other parts of the country!

Emerging Technologies™

FSA’s practice of highlighting the latest developments in stormwater technologies and services from the private sector will be continued this year and features the top firms from Florida and other parts of the country!

Break in Exhibit Hall

Development of an Emergency Warning System for Lakes

Hillsborough County has 186 named lakes mostly in urban areas. Lake level management is an important component to control flooding during wet season. This presentation describes an innovative approach that was used to develop rating curves for lakes to help with estimating lake level rise due to expected future rainfall. A web-based application to implement the approach will also be presented.

Nirjhar Shah, PhD, PE, CFM, Associate Engineer
Wood Environment and Infrastructure Solutions

Leland Dicus, PE, Technical Services Director
Hillsborough County

An Innovative "Smart" Stormwater Harvesting Treatment Train System

In an effort to proactively evaluate new stormwater management practices and minimize potable water use, Orange County, through a public-private collaboration, obtained an innovative stormwater harvesting treatment train system.  This session will provide an overview of the system including design, critical components, and initial monitoring results.

Mike Hardin, PhD, PE, CFM, Senior Engineer
Geosyntec Consultants

Grace Chua Corn, EI, CFM, GISP, Engineer III
Orange County

Wrap Up

Welcome

Sediment Restoration of Muck Impaired Waterways

Restoration plans such as the “Save Our Lagoon Project Plan” and the “Lake Seminole Reasonable Assurance Plan” called for the restoration of the Indian River Lagoon and Lake Seminole, which prioritizes reduction of nutrient flux from sediments to the overlying water.  This session will present case studies about sediment management activities.

Mary Szafraniec, PhD, PWS, Associate Scientist
Wood Environment and Infrastructure Solutions

Lance Lumbard, CLP, Senior Scientist
Wood Environment and Infrastructure Solutions

Coastal Resilience Index

This presentation will introduce the concept of a coastal resilience index that will synthesize coastal hazards, infrastructure and economics with a GIS tool. The objective of the index is to identify areas of high resilience, areas of low resilience and to synthesize the geography of resilience with the economics of resilience.

Nico Pisarello, MS, Engineering Associate
Applied Technology & Management

Jeffrey King, PhD, PE, Senior Professional Engineer
Applied Technology & Management

Break in Exhibit Hall

Restoring the Historic Hydrologic Divide

The St. John’s River Water Management District M-1 Canal Flow Restoration project is an innovative approach to regional stormwater management that reduces pollutant loads to the Indian River Lagoon, restores flows to the St. Johns River, and enhances the water quality benefits of a flood compensation area. These benefits will be achieved in an urban landscape without adverse impacts to flooding.

Marc Van Heden, PE, Supervising Professional Engineer
SJRWMD

Justin Gregory, PE, Senior Manager / Vice President
Jones Edmunds & Associates

Keeping Ahead of Sea Level Rise - A Holistic Approach

Lake Shore Drive has suffered severe flooding due to King tides and storm surges, becoming worse each year.  The Town of Lake Park has set goals to abate sea level rise, improve water quality, and enhance the aesthetics of the roadway corridor.  This presentation will review the out-of-the-box holistic approach taken to achieve these goals.

Jeffrey Hiscock, PE, Stormwater Department Manager
Baxter & Woodman

Integrated Hydrologic, Quality, and Ecological Restoration at Lake Eva

Restoration of Lake Eva is a true one water project in Haines City. The objective is to simultaneously improve lake level and quality, restore hydrology and wetlands, and recharge groundwater. The project includes stormwater retrofit for 450 acres, capturing excess surface water, restoring 145 wetland acres, and increasing recharge by 500 ac-ft/yr. This presentation will review the existing watershed and lake conditions, an analysis of the proposed restoration options, the Feasibility Study results, and the design and benefits of the option selected.

Jeff Herr, PE, DWRE, Vice President
Brown and Caldwell

Yuan Li, PE, Watershed Management Program Lead
SWFWMD

Machine Learning Applied to Sewer Overflows and SLR

The frequency and magnitude of sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) events appears to have increased during recent years resulting in water pollution with serious concerns for human health.  Logistic regression, a basic element of machine learning methodology, was used to develop a probabilistic model of SSOs in Pinellas County triggered by compound storm surge and precipitation events. This presentation will show that the model indicated the likelihood of these events will increase exponentially with increasing mean sea level.

Steven Meyers, Senior Scientist
University of South Florida

Shawn Landry, Professor
University of South Florida

Lunch Break

Sediment Nutrient Release - It's Not Just for Eutrophic Lakes!

Benthic nutrient release is often the most significant source of nutrient loadings to impaired waters, although it is commonly ignored in TMDL documents.  Sediment nutrient release occurs in all lakes, contributes both nitrogen and phosphorus, and sediment loadings often exceed runoff loadings. In most cases, water quality goals cannot be achieved by treating runoff only. This session will review data evaluated from nutrient release experiments from 40 Florida lakes. 

Harvey Harper, PE, PhD, President
Environmental Research and Design

Stormwater Outfall Resiliency Master Planning in Nation's Oldest City [Encore Presentation]

The City of St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied settlement in the US.  The City is at risk with rising sea levels impacting numerous historic sites, cultural resources and infrastructure.  The City has initiated resiliency efforts to address these challenges including a Master Plan to prioritize the existing stormwater outfalls for retrofitting.

Jessica Beach, PE, Stormwater Engineer
City of St. Augustine

Mark Ellard, PE, CFM, DWRE, ENV SP, Senior Principal, Water Resources
Geosyntec Consultants

Break in Exhibit Hall

An Introduction to Isotopic Tracers in Stormwater Runoff

Stormwater runoff can both dilute point source and intensify nonpoint source contamination, this makes pollution found in stormwater runoff difficult to differentiate. This session will present and review some of the leading techniques in isotope tracers and their applications to stormwater management and Nutrient Source Tracking (NST) with a focus on nitrate fingerprinting.

Sean Ahearn, MS, Project Manager
Beta Analytic

Where is All This Water Coming From?

Water quality for Lake June-in-Winter in Highlands County appears to have steadily declined over the past two decades as nutrient and chlorophyll-a levels have increased. A watershed-based water quality assessment plan was recently developed and conducted to identify sources of pollutant loading and to prioritize impacts to the lake.  This presentation will show the water quality sample and monitoring data collected from the various watershed regions, along with challenges and recommendations for the next phase.

Tim Denison, Senior Environmental Scientist
Johnson Engineering

Break in Exhibit Hall

2:40 PM – 3:25 PM
[Track A]
0.75 credits

Innovations in Stormwater Utility Funding

This presentation will provide attendees with a tool box to address their stormwater-related headaches, including changing federal and state regulations, urban sprawl, increasing storms and flooding, and aging infrastructure.  This presentation will provide approaches to implement a stormwater utility including equitable fee structures, public engagement, credits, green infrastructure incentives and interactive web tools.

Andrew Burnham, Vice President and Director of Financial Management Consulting
Stantec Consulting Services

Kelly Westover, CFM, PMP, Managing Consultant
Stantec Consulting Services

A Faster Road to Water Quality Restoration

A project that is part of a water quality restoration plan is much more likely to receive grant funding, but a TMDL/BMAP can take over 10 years to develop. Communities wanting to act sooner and have greater control are well served by developing a Reasonable Assurance Plan (RAP, 4b) or Source Reduction Plan (4e). The Mosquito Lagoon RAP will be reviewed as an example.

Brett Cunningham, PE, Managing Director
Jones Edmunds

Julie Espy, Director, Division of Environmental Assessment and Restoration
FDEP

Tony Janicki, PhD, President
Janicki Environmental

Break in Exhibit Hall

Trends in Stormwater Utilities in Florida

The Florida Stormwater Association has conducted a Survey of Stormwater Utilities in Florida every two years since 1997.  The session will examine the results of the 2020 Stormwater Utility Report, and how those results compare with those from previous years.  Trends in rates, credits, revenues and billing mechanisms will be discussed.

Stephen Lienhart, PE, Principal Water Resource Engineer
Black and Veatch

3:35 PM – 4:20 PM
[Track B]
0.75 credits

Dear Mayor, Our Street Flooded. Again! What is Your Plan to Fix It?

This presentation summarizes the process of developing a Watershed Asset Management Program (WAMP) for the City of Fort Lauderdale, Stormwater & Environmental Groups, to maximize the value of the City’s stormwater assets and their service to the Fort Lauderdale community while saving in stormwater operations and maintenance costs.

Elkin Diaz, MBA, PE, PMP, IAM, Senior Project Manager
City of Fort Lauderdale

Ryan Nagel, PE, ENV SP, Group Leader
Hazen & Sawyer

Jose Morales, MS, JD, PE, Regional Office Manager
GHD

Marie Pierce, Stormwater Operations Manager
City of Fort Lauderdale