36th Environmental Permitting Summer School

This course is back by popular demand and updated for 2022! For regulated facilities, environmental compliance inspections can often seem intimidating.  Recognizing the “pop quiz” impression of an inspection and the perceived business interruption, this panel will focus on providing an understanding of the purpose and approach of compliance reviews and help facilities effectively prepare for inspections to minimize impacts and maximize compliance and achieve the best outcome when non-compliant conditions are discovered during the inspection.  The panel will provide an overview of the roles of the Florida DEP and EPA, components of multimedia compliance monitoring programs developed for both agencies, a discussion of the State Review Framework, and DEP’s approach to satisfying their compliance inspection objectives.  With this background on the structure, purpose, and frequency, the panel will also present the latest national enforcement initiatives, which are selected by EPA every three years.  The panel will also discuss what inspectors typically look for when performing a facility inspection and how environmental staff can best be prepared for an inspection, including the post-inspection process of working out a settlement/consent order.  From both an industrial and legal perspective, the presentations will discuss best practices that environmental staff should follow before and on the day of the inspection in order to ensure that year-round compliance is achieved, the department’s compliance objectives are reached, inspectors’ needs are being met, all while minimizing undue stress on the regulated facility.