Spencer Fordin
One of South Florida’s most pressing problems is getting some attention.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced a $235 million loan to Miami-Dade County Thursday under the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA). The money is intended to help pay for improvements and expansion of existing wastewater treatment facilities in Florida’s most populous county.
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced the loan with U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart and Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez. The county and agency are partnering to reduce nutrient discharges, eliminate the use of ocean outfalls and reuse 60% of wastewater flows.
Wheeler said three WIFIA loans totaling $660 million have been granted to Miami-Dade in the last two years.
Those loans are meant to finance projects that will cost more than $1.3 billion. Gimenez, who is now running for the U.S. House of Representatives in Florida’s 26th Congressional District, said the loans are desperately needed.
“As the largest water and sewer utility in the southeastern United States that serves more than 2.3 million people every day, it is vital that the system is resilient and has the flexibility to continuously serve the community even during severe weather events,” Gimenez said.
“The upgrades that result from Miami-Dade County’s third consecutive partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency not only benefit increased service reliability for our community, but will benefit the environment, as well.”
Funding is expected to pay for upgrades at the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department’s three wastewater treatment plants that will assist in fulfilling state and federal requirements. The upgrades are also expected to help contribute to making the facilities more resilient in the event of a hurricane or severe weather event.
“These federal funds are an important investment to update and improve water systems in Miami-Dade County,” said U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of the WIFIA loan. “I thank the administration for its continued commitment to ensuring Florida receives the federal funding our state needs, especially federal funding to protect Florida’s environment.”
The Water and Sewer Department will increase the permitted treatment at one facility to 131 million gallons per day, and it will construct new injection wells at two facilities to help fulfill Ocean Outfall Legislation requirements.
The latter project will cost $480 million and the EPA’s WIFIA loan will finance up to $235 million of it.
WASD Director Kevin Lynskey said the third consecutive loan will help aid the ailing system
“We are not only able to accelerate upgrades that will result in system-wide improvements, but provide much needed employment opportunities,” Lynskey said.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who represents Monroe County and parts of southern Miami-Dade County, said Wednesday night that the Florida water system is badly overstressed and in need of immediate attention.
“As we see sea level rising, our water infrastructure, our septic tanks, are leaking fecal content into our water,” she said. “That’s why Miami Beach and Key Biscayne had to close beaches. This is completely failed leadership by the county Mayor here in Miami-Dade of not making the investments to replace those septic tanks into sewage.”
Mucarsel-Powell cited one study that showed a three-mile stretch of road in Sugarloaf Key will need a $128 million investment to not be underwater by the year 2045. She also said she spoke to University of Miami scientists who believe it will take 100 years to properly clean out Lake Okeechobee.
“For far too long, this conversation about protecting our environment was made to sound as if a clean, healthy environment would be nice to have, not something we need,” she said. “Unfortunately, in large part because of lack of leadership at the federal level — and also at the state and local level — we are behind.
“Over the past few years, we’ve seen the President and Senate Republicans put every possible roadblock to progress and in many instances reverse a lot of the progress we had already made.”
