St. Johns River Water Management District

News Release

nr09-046

District to hold public permitting meetings

PALATKA, Fla., July 20, 2009 - To ensure that the public continues to have opportunities to provide "in person" input into the St. Johns River Water Management District's permitting process following a new state law that changed the process for permit approvals, District Executive Director Kirby Green will hold public meetings prior to making permitting decisions.

The meetings initially will be held monthly, with the first meetings scheduled for 10 a.m. to noon on July 28, Aug. 25 and Sept. 29. The meetings will be held at District headquarters, 4049 Reid St., Palatka, and agendas will be posted on the District's Web site (www.sjrwmd.com/meetingagendas.html) seven days prior to the meetings.

The meetings will be opportunities for the public to appear in person to provide comments about consumptive use and environmental resource permit applications that, prior to the July 1 change in law, would have been considered by the District's Governing Board. The process is currently being evaluated for those permit applications challenged by an objector and referred to a neutral administrative law judge for a public administrative hearing.

"The ability of the public to appear before the decision-maker has always been an important component of the District's permitting process, and following the signing of Senate Bill 2080, we worked to identify a way for that input to continue to be a part of the process," said Green. "We believe this new process will ensure that this type of public input opportunity continues to be available."

A report will be included with the District Governing Board's monthly agenda listing any permit decisions that Green has made. Before the law went into effect, about 13 percent of permit applications were considered by the Board, while the remaining 87 percent were issued by staff.

To further enhance public involvement, the District created additional online opportunities for the public to request notifications about and to comment on pending permit applications. Additional information about the process is available at www.sjrwmd.com/sb2080 .

The process will continue to be evaluated and changes made as needed.

- END -