What the Well? Exploring Permitting Problems and Priorities at #MACoCon

There are significant and growing demands in the environmental health profession, necessitating more resources to meet those needs. Processing permits for repairs of existing infrastructure as well as the installation of new projects is a major part of that work. Ensuring a safe and efficient process is in place to meet the new demand on these divisions is imperative to ensuring a safe and healthy place for residents to live. This session will discuss the challenges, areas of greatest growth, and how the profession can modernize to meet 21st century needs.

Title: What the Well? Exploring Permitting Problems and Priorities

Description: Permits are a vital safeguard for making sure residents are protected, ensuring the compliance of projects happening around them and their families. When it comes to potable water, wastewater, and human by-product, proper handling can be a matter of life and death. Over the years, the process for issuing permits and performing inspections from an environmental health division has evolved, as have the market dynamics around those procedures. These changes represent challenges and opportunities. Join this expert panel to hear from state and local officials about how exactly this process is going, what recent findings in Maryland say about the role of local and state actors, as well as what the future looks like for modernization.

Speakers:

  • Don Curtain – President, Maryland Conference of Local Environmental Health Directors, Director of Environmental Health, Anne Arundel County
  • Stephen J. O’Connor – Director, Land Use and Development Services, Cecil County
  • Naomi R. Howell – Manager, Wastewater Permits Program, Maryland Department of the Environment

Moderator: The Honorable Delegate Dana Stein

Date/Time: Friday, August 16, 2024; 2:15 pm – 3:15 pm

MACo’s Summer Conference, “Turning the Tide,” is August 14-17, 2024, at the Roland Powell Convention Center in Ocean City, Maryland.

Learn more about MACo’s Summer Conference: