2024 Annual Conference Agenda

FSA Volunteer Service Project - This Event Has Reached Capacity (Free to Participate, Registration Required)
Join us for FSA's service project in Ft. Myers! Spend time with fellow FSA members for a beach cleanup on Ft. Myers Beach, Bunche Beach Preserve. Beach cleanups are the last line of defense to prevent debris from causing harm to our oceans, wildlife, and to our coastal communities.  Participants will be walking a stretch of beach to remove trash and large debris. All project materials will be provided, there is no cost to participate but space is limited so register early!

Pre-Conference Workshop – Resiliency in 2024 & Beyond (Additional Fee Applies, Registration Required)
Florida communities continue to hear the warnings about coastal flooding increasing because of strengthening storms and hurricanes. But before work can be done to address resilience in the face of these threats, we must know what roads, buildings and utilities are at risk. That's where the new Florida Flood Hub comes in. It was recently established at the USF College of Marine Science in St. Petersburg. The goal of the Hub is to identify what's most vulnerable to flooding statewide by improving flood forecasting and informing science-based policy, planning, and management. This session will share how the Flood Hub, established by the state and based at the University of South Florida College of Marine Science, will focus on resilience - the ability of communities to prepare for, withstand, and rebound from flood events and other natural hazards.  Learn how the Hub plans to address potential new regulations presented during the 2024 Legislative Session, and advance Florida’s understanding of and ability to forecast flooding due to sea level rise, high tides, storm surge, and changes in rainfall patterns.

Thomas K. Frazer, PhD, Executive Director
Florida Flood Hub for Applied Research and Innovation

Wesley R. Brooks, PhD, Chief Resilience Officer
State of Florida

Welcome & Opening Remarks

Representative Lindsay Cross
Florida House of Representatives

Shane Williams, 2023-24 FSA President
City of Gainesville

FSA Excellence Awards Ceremony
Join us as we recognize this year’s volunteer leader along with outstanding stormwater programs, projects, and public efforts across the state!

TRACK A – 2024 Legislative Session Review
Consideration of revisions to Florida water policy continued to receive a lot of attention in 2024.  The session will examine what was introduced, what passed and failed in 2024, and what might be reconsidered in 2025.  Attendees will have a chance to review the future of water policy and how water quality improvement programs may change in Florida. 

Kevin Coyne, Regulatory Affairs
Florida Stormwater Association

Diana Ferguson, Lobbyist
Florida Stormwater Association                  

TRACK B – Can Small Cities Be the Underdog for Stormwater Management?
As coastal communities reach maximum development capacity, inland cities are seeing significant population growth This growth, combined with increased severe weather events, is having an increased impact on water quality.  This session will examine how several inland cities are implementing  basin management action plans (BMAPs), stormwater best management practices (BMPs), and assessing resiliency through state-available programs. Each example will show how upstream communities can play a major role in reducing the impact to areas downstream.

Amanda Boone, PE, Project Manager
Woodard & Curran

TRACK A – Stormwater Regulatory Review: An Unofficial Survival Guide
In 2024, Florida will see significant stormwater-related regulatory changes that will impact both public and private entities.  This session will provide attendees with a comprehensive understanding of anticipated rule changes, how the changes may impact work programs, potential fiscal impacts, and the anticipated benefits to Florida’s water resources. Attendees will gain valuable insights to help navigate the changing, often challenging, regulatory landscape, and stay in compliance.

Steve Peene, PhD, Senior Principal
ATM, a Geosyntec Company

Scott Deitche, Senior Principal
Geosyntec Consultants

TRACK B – Orange County Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment
To address nutrient pollution from the 86,000 septic systems within its jurisdiction, Orange County performed a countywide groundwater vulnerability assessment. Analyzing groundwater quality data from across the County and performing extensive groundwater and nutrient fate and transport modeling, the County created and ranked 66 waterbody Priority Vulnerability Areas (PVAs). The PVAs were then used to focus on capital improvements and institutional controls (regulatory changes) to address nutrient pollution from groundwater. This session will provide an overview of this comprehensive study which developed a framework for the County to mitigate septic-derived nutrient pollution for decades to come.

Lee Mullon, PE, CFM, BC.WRE, PMP, Principal
Drummond Carpenter

TRACK A – A Stormwater Manual Review: Balance Between Improving Stormwater & Encouraging Redevelopment
Pinellas County undertook an extensive review of its Stormwater Manual to provide recommendations that focus on integrating design flexibilities and encourage redevelopment while also upholding the County’s initiative to improve stormwater quality and reduce flooding impacts. The peer review process included public outreach workshops, comparative assessments of stormwater regulations in adjacent municipalities, and an environmental and economical trending assessment. The findings and recommendations were presented to the Board of County Commissioners resulting in code updates that were adopted early 2024. This session will review the process and the updates that were implemented in Pinellas County’s Stormwater Manual.

Alex DeYoung, Project Manager
VHB

Kevin McAndrew, Director of Building and Development Review Services
Pinellas County 

TRACK B – Emerging Technologies – Shark Tank Style!
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! New this year, the Emerging Technologies session will be a Shark Tank Style session where attendees will vote to select their favorite pitch and product.

TRACK A – Stream Restoration as a Water Quality BMP
TMDLs in Florida consider a variety of nutrient sources, but they often do not account for the sediment-bound nutrients that enter systems from streambank erosion. Quantifying these nutrient inputs requires site-specific data, as there are different ways to measure erosion and all sites will vary. A stream restoration design that addresses the source of instability can provide an ecological uplift and enhance water quality in such a cost-effective manner that it could be used in the TMDL and BMAP process. This session will share case studies that provided measurable nutrient benefits on stream restoration projects and recently quantified nutrient inputs from streambank erosion

Steven Collins, PhD, PE, Water Resources Engineer
JMT       

TRACK B – Charged-UP and New BMPTrains
This presentation will provide an overview of the BMPTrains software with changes from  statewide technical and advisory committees as well as changes resulting from the Stormwater Rule Ratification process. Over the past year, changes have been made in many aspects of the permitting process.  These changes affect watershed and rainfall input conditions, BMP options, analysis of loadings, and others. The session will help in understanding what can be done for surface and groundwater protection using new combinations of stormwater BMPs and state target removal effectiveness.

Dingbao Wang, PhD, Professor
University of Central Florida

Ronald Eaglin, PhD, Chair of the Department of Engineering and Information Technology
Daytona State College

Martin Wanielista, PhD, Professor Emeritus
University of Central Florida

TRACK C – FDOT Research Update
This presentation will highlight FDOT’s latest research projects. Learn about Innovative and Integrative Best Management Practices (BMPs) for Surface and Groundwater Protection, Optimal Design of Stormwater Basins with Bio-Sorption Activated Media (BAM) in Karst Environments, Design of Stormwater BMPs for Surface and Groundwater Protection Based on Site-Scale Soil Properties, and a preview of new research.

Jennifer Green, PE, CPM, State Drainage Engineer
FDOT

As we transition from traditional best management practices (BMPs) that are relatively high in capital costs and low in operation and maintenance (O&M) costs to a mix of traditional and green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) BMPs that can be relatively low in capital costs and high in O&M costs, there is an increased need to evaluate life-cycle costs for each BMP application. Seeing the need for a uniform approach to BMP life-cycle costing, the Florida Stormwater Association Educational Foundation developed the BMP Life-Cycle Costing Tool through research and the experience participating FSA members. This presentation explains the use of the tool and how it can be used to evaluate BMPs and comply with the upcoming stormwater rules.

Brett Cunningham, PE, ENV SP, Managing Director
Jones Edmunds & Associates

TRACK B – What’s Going On? My STA is Not Performing the Way I Planned
The Willoughby Creek Stormwater Treatment Area (STA) is a 8.24-acre system which utilizes a combination of deep wet detention lakes and shallow treatment wetlands with native herbaceous submergent and emergent plants, along with storm pipes, associated ditch bottom inlets, control structures, and a sheet pile weir. The STA is designed to provide water quality improvements to 385 acres that contribute to the Willoughby Creek watershed. The project completed construction in 2020 and completed monitoring in 2021.  The monitoring results showed that the STA wasn't performing as planned. This presentation will explain the development of the project, the construction of the project, the pollutant reductions, and the next steps forward.

Amy Eason, PE, Environmental Resources Engineer
Martin County   

TRACK C – Loch Haven Chain of Lakes Flood Control and Nutrient Management
The Loch Haven Chain of Lakes (LHCL) is a five-lake region in the Howell Creek basin and spans three jurisdictions. In 2023, a legislative appropriation of $1.35 million was granted to the SJRWMD to administer and implement a flood control and long-term nutrient management study of the LHCL, in addition to identifying initial capital upgrades to stormwater infrastructure. The objective of the project is to provide the groundwork for developing sustainable projects with future benefits and long-term efficacy that can be implemented by municipalities and stakeholders. This project serves as a template for future multi-jurisdictional coordination. Stakeholder involvement is a key component of this project.

Anne Wester, PE, PhD, Supervising Professional Engineer
SJRWMD

This presentation will review the funding plan including over seven awarded state and federal grants for the ambitious Bay Park Sarasota Project. Attendees will learn strategies on funding identification, multiple grant stream coordination, and large-scale cooperation among many partners to execute a shared vision. The Bay is implementing a vibrant, financially feasible, and environmentally sustainable revitalization effort to establish a cultural, environmental, and economic legacy waterfront park for the region while ensuring open, public access to the Bayfront. The project spans 53 acres with additional freshwater creek, mangrove bayou, boat basin and Bay acreage. and has many phases of design and construction.

Katie Britt Williams, CFM, Senior Project Manager
Cummins Cederberg

TRACK B – Learn the Engineering “Nuts and Bolts”for Employing New Concepts
Engineering New Concepts builds upon the presentation titled “New Performance Standards and How to Meet Them.” The previous presentation introduced concepts such as stacking treatment components for improving wet detention efficiency, reducing DCIA, and employing stormwater harvesting. Using only the newly adopted BMP credits, this presentation provides the engineering “nuts and bolts” of these concepts and shows the steps needed to calculate treatment efficiencies. Lastly, these concepts will be integrated to indicate how the new standards for can be met using either dry or wet treatment systems.

Michael Bateman, PE, Chief Engineer
Project Hydrology

TRACK C – Get the Most BAM for Your Buck!
A study on utilizing biosorption activated media (BAM) filters for stormwater treatment had an unexpected and useful finding: there was a greater decrease in the concentration of orthophosphate than the decrease in concentration of total phosphorus.  A mass balance revealed that a significant amount of the orthophosphate decrease could be accounted for in the biomass of sloughed biofilm present in the effluent.  Now knowing that this is occurring, there is an opportunity to significantly increase the BMP's nutrient removal performance by incorporating the capture of sloughed biofilm into the treatment train.

Andrew Hood, PhD, Senior Water Resources Consultant
WSP

It’s time to relax!  So get comfortable and join us in your favorite flip flops for snacks, drinks, and the chance to win a door prize.  This will be the final hour to visit FSA’s Exhibitors, be sure to stop by to learn more about Florida’s emerging stormwater technologies!

TRACK A – Optimizing Stormwater Pond Load Reduction and Economics: “The Times They Are A-Changin”
Residence time is a metric to design ponds to meet load reduction presumptive guidance.  Residence time T models are agnostic to pond hydrodynamic, geometrics, partitioning and TSS parameters and interactions thereof.  While residence time models are expedient, results yield oversized and underperforming ponds.  In contrast, computational fluid dynamics integrated with machine learning (CFD-ML) accounts for such interactions, optimizing economics for a given load reduction.  A CFD-ML platform facilitates analysis, design, and retrofit optimization.  This session will examine how computational fluid dynamics have been used for decades in many technical professions and now with machine learning integration, benefits across Florida could exceed $1B and increased load reduction.

John Sansalone, PE, PhD, Professor of Engineering
University of Florida

TRACK B – Don’t Get Bogged Down with Bacteria Impairments
Boggy Creek, located in Orange County, is impaired for the fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) Escherichia coli based on long term monitoring data from four locations spread across a large watershed area of 85 square miles. The objective of this study was to use the FDEP FIB toolkit to identify hotspots and isolate specific sources of fecal pollution so that they can be addressed. This was accomplished through a comprehensive surface water monitoring program which expanded FIB monitoring to 16 locations throughout the watershed and used advanced microbial source tracking methods to determine the specific animal fecal source. Several FIB hotspots were identified from various animal sources including humans, dogs, and cows. This presentation will allow participants to gain insight into how they might design similar studies to address FIB contamination in their own waterbodies.

Kevin Tyre, MS, Water Resources Scientist
Geosyntec Consultants

Nicole Hughes, MS, Senior Environmental Specialist
Orange County

TRACK C – Statewide Stormwater Rule Overview
The revised Statewide Stormwater Rule will soon become effective, and conference attendees will have an opportunity to interact with FDEP staff on new permitting and regulatory requirements. FDEP staff will present on amendments made during the 2024 Legislative Session, components of the new rule that are effective now, and rule provisions that are on the horizon.

Emma Baird, State Stormwater Engineer
Florida Department of Environmental Protection

John Coates, Director, Water Resource Management
Florida Department of Environmental Protection

TRACK A – Reducing Harmful Discharges to Florida's Estuaries and Supplying Water to Florida's Everglades
Blue Green Algae has negatively impacted the St. Lucie Estuary and the Caloosahatchee Estuary, affecting water-related activities such as boating, fishing, swimming, diving and bird-watching, all of which support Florida’s seafood and tourism industries.  The presence of the algae is exacerbated by the need to maintain Lake Okeechobee’s water stage within safe containment levels by discharging its freshwater towards those estuaries, which currently provide its outlet.  Meanwhile, Everglades National Park is lacking fresh water and could benefit from those discharges if they were cleaned and directed southward, rather than east and west to the estuaries. This presentation will review the EAA A-2 Reservoir and Stormwater Treatment Area Project which was formulated to help meet these needs.

Alan Shirkey, PE, Director, Program Management
Brown and Caldwell  

TRACK B – Finally!  Automated, In-situ Bacteria Measurement - Case Studies from Permitted MS4s
The challenges associated with sampling and analysis of bacteria indicators are well documented.  Short holding times, dilution requirements, delays in results, and analytical costs have convinced many MS4 owners to focus their attention and resources on other community needs. Learn about an innovative new bacteria analyzer to assist with bacteria assessment. The remotely deployed device can collect in-situ samples for incubation and enumeration of reliable E. Coli or fecal coliform bacteria concentrations. This innovative new approach has allowed several MS4 communities to better characterize local receiving waters and whether bacteria concentrations exceed water quality standards.

James Riddle, PE, Program Director
Woolpert

Jacob Burkey, PE, Senior Associate
Woolpert

TRACK C – Solving Multiple Challenges at Once: A Watershed Optimization Model
The City of Winter Haven faces many challenges protecting its natural resources amongst a rapidly growing population. The Winter Haven Watershed Optimization Model, a standalone spreadsheet tool integrating surface and groundwater components, provides the hydrologic data input, including runoff and recharge under various land use scenarios. The tool compiles current and future utility and watershed data and allows testing of a wide range of management actions to optimize decision-making processes and provides important insights to the costs and effects of different scenarios. This presentation will share how communities across Florida, particularly in water-stressed regions, could greatly benefit from implementing this innovative approach to water resources planning and management.

Sam Miller, Project Manager
Black & Veatch

Charlotte Haberstroh, PE, PhD, Project Engineer
Black & Veatch