Gov. DeSantis marks opening of new reverse osmosis facility in the Keys

Gov. Ron DeSantis has announced the opening of a new, $47 million sweater desalination plant in Monroe County that will provide emergency drinking to residents of Key West and the Lower Florida Keys.

The Kermit H. Lewin Stock Island Reverse Osmosis Facility, named for a longtime Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority (FKAA) Board member, marks a major step forward in the region’s resilience planning

It replaces a reverse osmosis plant damaged by Hurricane Irma in 2017 and is built to withstand future storms with fortified construction, elevated design and storm-resilient materials.

“Since 2019,” DeSantis said in a statement, “we’ve committed over $80 million to water quality and infrastructure in the Florida Keys — with more to come.”

The project was funded through a $30.7 million Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery grant from FloridaCommerce and matched by local dollars from FKAA.

The project also received a $5 million allocation during the Legislature’s 2023 budgeting process through requests by Doral Republican Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez and Islamorada Republican Rep. Jim Mooney, whose districts include the Keys.

Most of Monroe’s water comes from Florida City, Miami-Dade County’s southernmost municipality, and is kept in storage tanks that then supply local needs. The Keys also have two reverse osmosis facilities already in operation.

While the plant won’t operate daily under normal conditions, it will serve as a critical backup during water emergencies, particularly if the 127-mile transmission pipeline from Florida City — the Keys’ primary water source — is damaged.

Reverse osmosis is a desalination process that forces seawater through a semipermeable membrane to remove salt and other impurities. The technology, which requires significant energy to operate, is considered essential in areas with limited freshwater supplies, especially islands like the Keys, which are geographically vulnerable and rely heavily on a single pipeline for potable water.

The Stock Island plant joins a growing number of reverse osmosis facilities across Florida. The largest is the Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Plant, which has a daily capacity of 25 million gallons and serves as a supplementary source for the Tampa Bay Water system.

Other municipalities — such as Cape Coral, Marco Island and Punta Gorda — operate brackish water reverse osmosis plants to bolster water supplies during dry months or to reduce reliance on groundwater aquifers.

In the Keys, the new facility complements a broader portfolio of infrastructure upgrades. Just last month, the Department of Environmental Protection awarded more than $9 million through the Florida Keys Area of Critical State Concern program for wastewater treatment, stormwater upgrades and canal restoration.

State and local officials see the facility as part of a long-term investment strategy to strengthen the Keys’ resilience to climate change and hurricanes. By diversifying its water sources and fortifying infrastructure, the region is better positioned to respond to the increasingly intense weather events affecting Florida.