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Florida’s Environmental News Source of Record focused on news content of interest to the environmental community.
SPECIFIER PUBLISHING LLC
Publisher
Editor-In-Chief
Patrick Gillespie
Staff Writers
BLANCHE HARDY, PG
Senior Correspondent
LINA ALFIERI STERN
MBA, MSRED, LEED Green Associate
Copyeditor
Emma Cyphers
Designer
Tracy Kistler
Contributing Writers and Columnists
LUNA PHILLIPS
Gunster
PHILIP SLIGER
Gunster
BRUCE RITCHIE
ACF Rivers News
KAREN CYPHERS
Sachs Media
LISSA STROHECKER
St. Johns River Water Management District
KEYNA CORY
Florida Recycling Partnership
CATHERINE WOLDEN
Southwest Florida Water Management District
RODNEY BARRETO
Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission
GREG STRONG
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
Federal agencies and the State of Florida have petitioned the D.C. Circuit to rehear a ruling that struck down Florida’s Clean Water Act Section 404 wetlands permitting program on Endangered Species Act grounds, with a response to the rehearing petitions due Sept. 18.
State wildlife officials cut Apalachicola Bay’s oyster harvest limit nearly in half for the coming season after an unexplained die-off closed the East Hole reef, even as Florida continues multi-million-dollar reef restoration efforts following the bay’s 2012 population collapse.
A new Sachs Media survey of 1,000 Florida voters finds 89 percent call Burmese pythons a serious problem and support state removal efforts, but fewer than one in 25 Floridians have ever taken part in python removal activities themselves.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers detonated 140,000 pounds of explosive material in May to advance construction of the EAA Reservoir, part of a new state-federal agreement that cuts the project’s construction timeline in half and targets completion by 2029.
Around the Gulf rounds up regional energy and environmental news from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, including new gas- and solar-power plant proposals, a floating LNG terminal green light and a proposed revision to Alabama’s coal ash regulations.
The St. Johns River Water Management District has used three decades of prescribed burning, thinning and native replanting to restore Lochloosa Wildlife Conservation Area, work that helped firefighters contain a wildfire on the property in May 2026.
Florida Notes rounds up regional environmental news from around the state, including expanded SJRWMD springs monitoring, a paused Port Everglades dredging project, The Reef Institute’s coral biobank visit and Mote Marine’s Keys-wide coral rescue effort.
The Florida Recycling Partnership Foundation hosted an exclusive sustainability program at The Breakers Palm Beach, highlighting the resort’s water management, oyster shell recycling and waste diversion programs.
As Florida’s Section 404 wetlands permitting case heads toward a possible rehearing, this editorial argues the dispute exposes a deeper sequencing problem in how federal law lets states assume delegated environmental programs while satisfying the Endangered Species Act.
The Florida Specifier remembers James “Jim” R. Maher, a longtime Florida Department of Environmental Protection engineer who retired from the agency’s Northeast District Office in 2023 after 35 years of service, following his death on Aug. 15, 2026.
The Lake County Water Authority’s four-year alum treatment program at Lake Yale, the first large-scale project of its kind on state-owned submerged lands in Florida, has cut total phosphorus from 37 ppb to under 10 ppb in post-treatment samples.
A roundup of upcoming Florida environmental conferences and events, from the Sept. 17 Building a Resilient Florida Summit in Orlando to the Everglades Coalition Conference in Naples in January 2027.
The Southwest Florida Water Management District’s Water Quality Monitoring Program Manager Catherine Wolden answers common questions about how the District collects and uses its roughly 2,700 annual water samples across more than 950 monitoring stations.
FWC and the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida are advancing Florida’s Coastal Corridor, a coordinated statewide initiative to link artificial reef habitat zones along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts to boost fisheries and expand public access to fishing and diving.
The Northwest Florida Water Management District is offering $250,000 in cost-share grants of up to $50,000 per project for water conservation measures, with applications accepted until 2 p.m. on Sept. 17.
In Other News rounds up statewide items including a University of Miami effort using black soldier flies to recycle sargassum seaweed, a new 1,564-acre conservation easement protecting a Highlands County cattle ranch, and SFWMD facts for National Water Quality Month.
The U.S. Department of Justice has petitioned the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to rehear a March 2026 ruling that upheld the vacating of the EPA’s 2020 approval of Florida’s Clean Water Act Section 404 permitting program. The petition argues the panel’s decision conflicts with existing precedent and threatens the framework for state-administered environmental permitting nationwide.
The St. Johns River Water Management District highlights how regional collaboration, restoration projects, and science-based planning are improving water quality and supporting the recovery of the Indian River Lagoon and Upper St. Johns River Basin.
Sean Parker and Owen Parker examine the potential impacts of Florida’s proposed property tax amendment, warning that while it would expand homestead tax exemptions, it could significantly reduce municipal revenue and force local governments to cut essential public services.
A new Sachs Media survey finds that Environmental Permitting Summer School attendees are generally optimistic about Florida’s environmental future, while highlighting their priorities for permitting reform and key differences between environmental professionals and the public on major environmental issues.
The Florida Department of Transportation is expanding its pollinator conservation efforts by using highway rights of way to establish native wildflower and milkweed habitat, helping support monarch butterflies and other pollinators through strategic partnerships and science-based land management.
Gov. Ron DeSantis finalized Florida’s 2026–2027 state budget, vetoing more than $800 million in projects while approving a $117.6 billion spending plan that includes significant investments in environmental, infrastructure, and agricultural priorities.
State Rep. Bill Conerly discusses how deep underground injection of landfill leachate, when properly regulated, can be a safe and effective waste management method, emphasizing that disposal decisions should be guided by science, engineering, and comparative risk.
Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson highlights Florida’s record investment in the Rural and Family Lands Protection Program, emphasizing its role in preserving working agricultural lands, supporting farm families, and ensuring the long-term future of the state’s agricultural industry.
U.S. Rep. Jimmy Patronis argues that streamlining the federal permitting process through the PERMIT Act would reduce unnecessary delays, restore more authority to states like Florida, and accelerate infrastructure and development projects while maintaining environmental protections.
The EPA’s proposed rule changes would give public water systems more time to meet PFAS standards while dropping restrictions on four of six regulated chemicals, part of a broader $10 billion federal push to address PFAS contamination.
NOAA predicts a lighter-than-normal 2026 Atlantic hurricane season with 8-14 named storms, but Florida emergency management officials and DEP are urging residents and coastal communities to prepare early using new nature-based resiliency guidelines and state mitigation funding.
Florida practitioners with WOTUS experience weighed in on the EPA and Army Corps’ proposed rule implementing Sackett v. EPA, predicting the core jurisdictional framework will survive largely intact while the proposed wet-season methodology is the piece most likely to change before finalization.
Florida Notes rounds up statewide environmental updates, from water management districts reporting rainfall relief and a federal order preserving coal power at OUC’s Stanton Energy Center to university research on sea-level rise and pelagic Sargassum, Florida’s ranking for clean air, and a milestone in Everglades restoration.
Around the Gulf covers regional energy and environmental news, including new natural gas capacity and data center fights in Texas, Louisiana’s ban on climate lawsuits against oil and gas companies, a DOJ-backed data center pollution case in Mississippi, and a coal ash lawsuit moving forward in Alabama.
The Environmental Permitting Summer School marks its 40th anniversary this July, having grown from a small Tallahassee permitting course into Florida’s largest environmental conference, drawing more than 1,400 regulators, consultants and policymakers each year.
The 40th Annual Environmental Permitting Summer School adds five new courses covering stormwater nutrient trading, water resource collaboration and expert testimony, alongside speakers from the Army Corps, EPA, DEP and Miami-Dade County.
The Suwannee River Water Management District is promoting its annual Leave No Litter campaign as summer crowds increase along the Ichetucknee, Suwannee and Santa Fe rivers, urging visitors to pack out trash and protect fragile aquatic habitats.
All 13 of Florida’s bat species are protected under state law, with roost exclusion prohibited from April 16 through August 14 to safeguard maternity colonies during pup-rearing season, according to FWC regulations covered in this report.
DEP is partnering with five contractors on performance-based restoration projects for Lake Okeechobee, paying out only as phosphorus and nutrient-laden muck removal is demonstrated, with methods ranging from biofiltration wetlands to iron-based extraction and flocculant treatments.
More than 40 years of restoration work by the St. Johns River Water Management District has cut phosphorus concentrations in Lake Apopka by 66 percent and restored native submerged vegetation along 95 percent of its shoreline, transforming the once heavily polluted lake into a fishing and wildlife destination.
In Other News rounds up smaller Florida stories, including an 860-acre land preservation in Bradford County, a study on robotic mowers and lawn health, and new FSU research improving the accuracy of satellite ocean surface measurements.
Some Florida local governments are diverting utility ratepayer revenue meant for water infrastructure upgrades into their General Funds while still seeking state grants for the same unfunded projects, a practice the authors argue should disqualify those utilities from future state funding.
SB 912, which would have created a statewide battery stewardship program to modernize Florida’s outdated battery disposal laws and reduce lithium-ion fires at recycling facilities, failed to pass this session but is expected to be refiled in 2027.
A new mapping application from the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks shows Florida sits atop a dense arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal network, part of a global dataset drawn from 322 studies and more than 16,000 soil cores used to predict soil biodiversity and inform conservation planning.
Longtime Florida environmental reporter Bruce Ritchie introduces a new semi-regular series on his ACF River News Substack, revisiting three decades of litigation and cooperative efforts among Alabama, Florida and Georgia over the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river system.
Have an idea for a story? Would you like to submit a column for consideration? Please, let us know. And remember to fill us in on your organization’s new people, programs, new offices, projects or technologies — anything of interest to environmental professionals working in Florida. Send to SPECIFIER PUBLISHING
LLC, P.O. Box 1857, Tallahassee, FL 32302.
Florida’s Environmental News Source of Record focused on news content of interest to the environmental community.
SPECIFIER PUBLISHING LLC
Publisher
Editor-In-Chief
Patrick Gillespie
Staff Writers
BLANCHE HARDY, PG
Senior Correspondent
LINA ALFIERI STERN
MBA, MSRED, LEED Green Associate
Copyeditor
Emma Cyphers
Designer
Tracy Kistler
Contributing Writers and Columnists
STEVE BRAUN, PE
Florida Department ofTransportation
SUMMER LINDELIEN
Florida Fish &Wildlife ConservationCommission
JOHN CIMBARO
Florida Fish &Wildlife ConservationCommission
DANIELLE FITZPATRICK
St. Johns River WaterManagement District
JAMES MOONEY
Florida House ofRepresentatives
KEYNA CORY
Florida RecyclingPartnership
KATHERINE SQUITIERI
Southwest Florida WaterManagement District
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