Regulatory Rulemaking: Water Initiatives in FL

The Problem – As part of a company’s regulatory compliance team, we were asked to lead an interdisciplinary team on a regulatory rulemaking initiative that could significantly impact the company’s operations in Florida. The company’s request was to influence the rulemaking language, determine the scope and extent of the rulemaking impacts to the company operations, and propose alternatives to address compliance with the new rule.

The Action – The AssenTerra team lead identified the key internal and external interdisciplinary team members including legal counsel, environmental, biologists, geostatisticians, and engineering to assist directly on the team. Under the AssenTerra team leader, the team worked together to develop one pre-rulemaking comment letter and two comment letters responding to requests for comment to proposed rulemaking language. The combined three comment letters provided suggested language revisions grounded in technical documentation and otherwise supported by existing agency policy. Further, the AssenTerra team leader worked directly with engineering to assess impacts to the business operations based on the anticipated rule language. Once the impacts were understood, three alternative solutions to address compliance were provided: 1) an administrative solution leveraging the regulatory language allowing proof that operations were not causing impacts; 2) individual site-by-site physical treatment solutions for the more than 40 discharge locations; or 3) a holistic solution that used a combination of administrative relief coupled with physical treatment solutions to reduce discharges from operations on a watershed basis.

The Results – AssenTerra successfully influenced the regulation with 50% of the AssenTerra team’s proposed changes being incorporated into a State regulation resulting in a 10% reduction in implementation liability for the company. Upon evaluation by the company, it was decided that the holistic implementation solution on a watershed basis would be the most protective of the environment while allowing the company to continue operating successfully.