Submerged Lands and Environmental Resources Coordination Program

The Environmental Resource Permitting (ERP) program regulates almost all changes to the landscape that affect surface water flows. Changes to the landscape include clearing, grading, construction of structures, filling, and dredging, whether the work occurs in uplands, wetlands, or other surface waters (including wetlands and waters that are isolated).

Explanation of Sovereign Submerged Lands (SSL) and the Linkage Between Proprietary Authority and Regulatory Authority in ERP

• Sovereign Submerged Lands (SSL) are those lands including but not limited to, tidal lands, islands, sand bars, shallow banks, and lands waterward of the ordinary or mean high water line, beneath navigable fresh water or beneath tidally-influenced waters, which the State of Florida acquired title to on March 3, 1845, by virtue of statehood, and which have not been heretofore conveyed or alienated. (18-21.003, Florida Administrative Code)

Currently, each water management district has its own Applicant’s Handbook Volume II, applicable only within the district. Volume II is applicable only to those ERP activities that involve the design of a stormwater management system that requires a permit under Chapter 62-330, F.A.C. More specifically, it provides specific, detailed design and performance methodologies designed to meet the water quality and quantity requirements of stormwater management systems. 

What is Dredge and Fill?

Dredging means excavation in wetlands or other surface waters or excavation in uplands that creates wetlands or other surface waters. Filling means deposition of any material (such as sand, dock pilings or seawalls) in wetlands or other surface waters.

The surface waters regulated under the dredge and fill program include bays, bayous, sounds, estuaries, lagoons, rivers, streams, the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, most natural lakes, and all waters and wetlands (natural or artificial).