Our Instructors


 

J. Fred Heitman

EROSION & SEDIMENT CONTROL CERTIFIED IN TENNESSEE (LEVEL 1 & II); FLORIDA, GEORGIA, VIRGINIA, NEBRASKA, AND MARYLAND; FLORIDA QUALIFIED STORMWATER INSPECTOR; CERTIFIED FLORIDA EROSION AND SEDIMENT CONTROL TRAINER; QUALIFIED MS4 STORMWATER PROFESSIONAL; QUALIFIED MS4 STORMWATER INSPECTOR; QUALIFIED CONSTRUCTION STORMWATER INSPECTOR; QUALIFIED CALIFORNIA CONSTRUCTION STORMWATER INSPECTOR; QUALIFIED EROSION AND SEDIMENT CONTROL INSPECTOR; CERTIFIED STORMWATER INSPECTOR; ADVANCED STORMWATER INSPECTOR; CERTIFIED EROSION INSPECTOR; AND CERTIFIED FISHERIES PROFESSIONAL.

SUMMARY of RELEVANT EXPERIENCE:

ASI Lead Instructor Fred HeitmanJ. Fred Heitman is an experienced stormwater instructor. He has taught hundreds of courses and has thousands of students who claim that he is the best instructor that they have ever experienced. His knowledge of the stormwater issues is rooted in his extensive experience in performing inspections. He has conducted MS4, construction, and industrial inspections throughout the USA. Mr. Heitman uses this experience to bring real life situations to the regulations. Combined with the knowledge that he has gained working with students from all 50 states he is able to effectively communicate what inspectors need to know, how best to conduct an inspection, and what to look for to ensure compliance with permit requirements.

Mr. Heitman is an experienced environmental professional with a working knowledge of chemistry, biology, hydrology and other related sciences. He has a diverse background in dealing with stormwater issues on a federal, state and local level. He is familiar with implementing these regulations from both the aspect of the regulated and the regulator. These unique perspectives allow him to appreciate and understand the local situations and to develop implementable and innovative solutions to difficult situations.

Mr. Heitman has been working with the stormwater regulations since the early 1990s when they were first promulgated. The initial stormwater regulations allowed industrial clients the opportunity to file group applications for similar industries. Mr. Heitman prepared the Group Applications for all of the US manufacturing facilities for International Business Machines (IBM) and for INCO, the third largest nickel producer in the free world. These applications were accepted by US EPA and saved his clients many thousands of dollars over filing individual applications.

Mr. Heitman later developed the SWPPP for the largest residential and commercial construction site on the east coast. This site in the Washington DC suburbs covered several thousand acres and was phased over several years. His task was to coordinate the SWPPP requirements so that the county and state requirements were met in such a manner as to not hinder the construction time schedule. He successfully achieved this goal through the use of innovation inspection forms that met all regulatory requirements and still allowed the construction workers to complete their tasks.

Mr. Heitman has developed SWPPP’s for industrial and residential construction sites in several states including California, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Oregon, Washington, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, and West Virginia.

Mr. Heitman has extensive experience in stormwater permitting issues throughout the US. Because of his experience he was asked by the National Stormwater Center to become a faculty member for stormwater permitting courses. He has taught the Certified Stormwater Inspector course and the Certified CONSTRUCTION Stormwater Inspector course throughout the US. Students in this class were typically non-professionals with very limited backgrounds in understanding regulatory requirements. Mr. Heitman presented his materials in a manner that the students not only understood the requirements but also they understand why the regulations require certain things.

Mr. Heitman also teaches a course in erosion and sediment control techniques.

In 2007 Mr. Heitman conducted 80 inspections at industrial sites in 21 states and wrote SWPPPs for all the facilities. All the inspections and SWPPPs had to be completed by the end of the calendar year.

Mr. Heitman has conducted studies of stormwater quality from construction sites. In these studies samples of stormwater discharges from construction sites was collected as water was leaving the site and had passed through all onsite BMPs. Samples are taken to an approved lab for analysis within EPA holding times using chain of custody procedures. These discharges were into 303d listed water bodies. He statistically analyzed the data and prepared reports for the confidential client.

Mr. Heitman has served as an expert witness regarding storm water permitting issues. His expertise is in the areas of storm water regulations and permit requirements, sampling protocols, evaluating BMP effectiveness and related issues.

He is recognized expert in NPDES permitting issues, storm water permitting strategies, fishery biology, aquatic ecology, and whole effluent toxicity. He also has significant experience in the areas of hydrology and environmental chemistry. He has provided scientific and technical advice and guidance to a wide variety of government and industrial clients. His technical background has served as a foundation for increasingly responsible project and program management experience. The combination of his experiences allows Mr. Heitman to develop implementable solutions to complex environmental problems.

Mr. Heitman has been dealing with NPDES issues for more than 30 years. His initial experience as Head of Water Quality Enforcement for the Oklahoma Water Resources Board provided a variety of situations dealing with stormwater. He was responsible to find implementable solutions to contaminated discharge problems throughout the state at a variety of industrial site.

Mr. Heitman has numerous scientific publications and has made many technical presentations.

 

Lori Cunniff

QUALIFIED STORMWATER EROSION AND SEDIMENT CONTROL INSPECTOR, QSE&SI INSTRUCTOR, QSI (MS4), QCSI, CEP, CHMM, COSS

SUMMARY of RELEVANT EXPERIENCE:

ASI Instructor Lori CunniffLori Cunniff is an environmental professional with more than 30 years of progressively complex regulatory experience. She has served in a variety of regulatory positions which allows her to present not only the basis for stormwater permits but also to provide an interpretation of issues from the regulator’s point of view. She has detailed understanding of stormwater issues because of her experience conducting stormwater inspections in Florida and New York for MS4s, at construction sites, and at industrial plants.

She is not only a Qualified Stormwater Management Inspector (FL DEP) but she also is one of only three practicing private instructors for the course. She is an experienced instructor and effective communicator having taught a variety of other environmental courses to students from several states. She has served as an adjunct professor at the University of West Florida where she taught a course in Environmental Law.

Ms. Cunniff has been recognized nationally for her work in pollution prevention, which is part of the MS4 permitting requirements. She is experienced performing stormwater inspections at construction, industrial, and MS4 locations. She can evaluate the effectiveness of stormwater controls and BMPs relative to their compliance with state construction general permit requirements.

Ms. Cunniff has extensive experience working across various environmental regulations. This is particularly important in assessing stormwater permitting issues because the stormwater regulations touch so many other environmental regulations. This allows her to find innovative solutions to complex environmental situations. Because of the quality of her work she was recognized as the Environmental Professional of the Year by the NW Florida Association of Environmental Professionals.

Ms. Cunniff has extensive working knowledge of biology, hydrology, water quality issues, and other scientific areas. She has overseen environmental programs including stormwater, lake management, environmental permitting, solid waste, hazardous waste, air, petroleum compliance and remediation and natural land management. Her background includes soil science research. She also is an experienced terrestrial entomologist.

With the American Stormwater Institute Ms. Cunniff is an instructor for Florida Erosion and Sedimentation courses, Qualified MS4 Stormwater Inspector courses, and Qualified Construction Stormwater Inspector courses.


Thank you and Fred for the expert training class.

Marion Jehens
WestCoast Public Works, Inc.

The content was great and I learned a lot. I can put the material into immediate use.

Landon Greene

Since I attended the seminar, I’ve gotten better at identifying BMPs at construction sites and making decisions on whether said BMPs are working.

Garrett Noel
City of Youngsville Public Works

Thank you very much for an informative and interesting class which you instructed on Stormwater Inspections this past week in Bordentown.

Tom Gant
Environmental and Technical Services

I enjoyed the training and learned a great deal over the last two days. I also liked the examples you provided of the different types of illicit discharges. These are good to know as an inspector but can be easily bypassed if one does not know what to look for.

Shandale Forbes
PRIME AE Group, Inc.

I really enjoyed his class and he did a great job Friday, very informational and was not dull, the interaction was great.

Joshua Houghton

The class was very informative and will be of great help to me in inspecting stormwater items. I enjoyed the class and I think it is really worth more than 1.5 CEUs. Thanks again.

Steve DeSalva

Since I attended the seminar, I’ve gotten better at identifying BMPs at construction sites and making decisions on whether said BMPs are working.

Garrett Noel
City of Youngsville Public Works

I am currently telecommuting from home in response to COVID-19 concerns and was happy to see there are still training opportunities available right now that can be taken online! It was a unique opportunity to learn about the stormwater issues faced in other parts of the country where weather patterns vary greatly and stormwater programs are faced with different regional concerns. I really appreciated the opportunity to gain that perspective.

Katie Marcel

Thank you for all of your assistance on both of my trainings. I have several people that I will discuss this class with. Also thank Fred for his great teachings.

David B. Garrison
Marinita Development Co.