At the July 17, 2019 City Commission meeting, Commissioner Mark Samuelian referred this discussion to the Sustainability and Resiliency Committee (SRC), which has been merged and renamed the Land Use and Sustainability Committee. An initial discussion was held at the July 19, 2019 SRC meeting and an update was provided at the September 25, 2019 meeting.

Staff from the City Manager’s Office, the Environment and Sustainability Department, and the Public Works Department have been holding monthly coordination meetings with Miami-Dade County Division of Environmental Resources Management (DERM) leadership since 2016. The purpose of these meetings is to increase communication between the two entities and allow county and city staff to proactive address potential issues through high-level coordination. One of the discussion items on the monthly meeting agendas relates to protecting and improving water quality.

The city reduces potential pollution through a combination of education and outreach, good housekeeping, as well as the use of cutting-edge technology and industry-vetted operational practices. The city’s stormwater management program focuses heavily on preventing pollution at its source: people. It is easier and less expensive for each person to do their part by picking up after their pets, tossing trash into designated bins, and properly applying landscape maintenance chemicals than to capture and remove pollutants in larger concentrations from within the stormwater system. Nevertheless, the city plays an important role in protecting water quality and has a well-rounded strategy to remove pollutants outside and inside the stormwater system before they reach Biscayne Bay.

On Thursday, April 25, 2019, interdepartmental staff met with DERM leadership to discuss water quality and talk through the city’s plans to improve upon our current efforts. The city began by highlighting the progress we have made over the last five years to improve water quality, including:

• In science, such as the voluntary launch of a municipal water quality sampling program

• In design, such as the modification of pumped outfall designs to include dissipator boxes that reduce discharge velocities from those approved in the city’s first new generation pump stations;

• In operations, such as increasing stormwater system maintenance from once every three years to once every year;

• In policy, such as the citywide bans on polystyrene and plastic straws; and,

• In compliance, such as the creation of the city’s environmental inspection programs to reduce sanitary sewer overflows and construction run-off.

During the meeting, DERM and city staff identified several action items to take our stormwater management program to the next level.

Following the April 25 meeting, City staff compiled a list of the 24 action items identified to facilitate tracking their progress. The 24 action items are divided into four types:

• 14 administrative (i.e., providing copies of our standard operation procedures for stormwater system maintenance);

• Five regulatory (i.e., close out open permits that have completed construction);

• Three education and outreach (i.e., develop a flyer for homeowners that will have yard drains on their private property); and,

• Two engineering (i.e., evaluate options for enhanced stormwater treatment before discharge).

To date, 16 actions items have been completed, seven are in progress and one has not been started. The last pending action is for DERM and the City to conduct a “Walk the Waterbody” inspection, during which interdisciplinary teams of DERM and City staff traverse one drainage basin and discuss options for further reducing pollution. We will be meeting with DERM staff in the coming weeks to set a date for this initiative.