Activity Base Split or "Who Does What?"
 

The Environmental Resource Permit (ERP) Program regulates activities involving the alteration of surface water flows. This includes new activities in uplands that generate stormwater runoff from upland construction, as well as dredging and filling in wetlands and other surface waters.  Two wetlands regulatory programs exist at the state level: a dredge and fill (wetland resource) permit program (WRP) within the limits of the Northwest Water Management District and an environmental resource permit (ERP) program throughout the rest of the state. Environmental Resource Permit applications are processed by either the one of the Department's districts or one of the state's water management districts, in accordance with the division of responsibilities specified in operating agreements between the Department and the water management districts.  

All ERP permitting and state-owned submerged lands authorizations are now done in the district offices of the Department and in the St. Johns River, Suwannee River, Northwest Florida, South Florida, and Southwest Florida Water Management Districts. Operating Agreements between the Department and the water management districts spell out which agency will process any given application. Under those agreements, the Department generally reviews and takes actions on applications involving:

• Solid waste, hazardous waste, domestic waste, and industrial waste facilities
• Mining (except borrow pits that do not involve on-site material grading or sorting)
• Power plants, transmission and communication cables and lines, and natural gas and petroleum exploration, production, and distribution lines and facilities
• Docking facilities and attendant structures and dredging that are not part of a larger plan of residential or commercial development
• Navigational dredging conducted by governmental entities, except when part of a larger project that a WMD has the responsibility to permit
• Systems serving only one single-family dwelling unit or residential unit not part of a larger common plan of development
• Systems located in whole or in part seaward of the coastal construction control line
  Seaports, and
• Smaller, separate water-related activities not part of a larger plan of development (such as boat ramps, mooring buoys, and artificial reefs)

The water management districts review and take action on all the other ERP applications. Staff of the Department and the districts will be happy to help applicants determine the appropriate agency for an application.