The City of Miami Beach owns, operates, and maintains its water and sanitary sewer utility. The City’s system distributes potable water and collects sanitary sewer. The City has long established agreements with Miami-Dade County to purchase potable water and transmit sewage at volume rates. In 2019, the City completed its Water and Sanitary Sewer System Master Plans.

At its March 18, 2020 meeting, the City Commission made a motion to accept the recommendation of the Finance and Economic Resiliency Committee (FERC) to accept a Five-Year Critical Needs Capital Plan for the City's Water and Sanitary Sewer systems—as recommended by the Master Plans—, totaling $122.2 million, via Resolution No. 2020-31211.

At its October 13, 2021 meeting, the City Commission approved a referral to the Land Use and Sustainability Committee to provide a status on the approved water/sewer infrastructure plans, including potential additional needs such as Dade/Purdy Avenue. Staff presented the requested information at the February 11, 2022 LUSC meeting. The LUSC requested additional information on funding gaps, and extended water and sewer infrastructure improvement needs beyond the first five years.

The approved five-year critical needs capital plan for the City’s water and wastewater system is summarized below:

This plan reflects the utility’s needs as defined by the Water and Sewer Master Plans, completed in 2019, and internal renewal and replacement plans. As seen above, the plan accounts for an investment of $122.3M (2020-2024). The attached presentation provides an overview of the significant progress to date on the approved five-year critical needs capital plan for the City’s water and wastewater system, as well as an update on plan cost increases along with new system needs recently identified.

The 5-Year Critical Needs Plan (2020-2024) estimated cost has increased by approximately $44.7M, due to a combination of the following:

·  $27.1M – changes to project scopes to address unforeseen conditions, and also largely due to current market conditions.

·  $8.7 M – new needs identified along with fast-tracking of emergency projects, such as the Dade Blvd. 16-inch sanitary sewer force main replacement.

·  $8.9 M – DEO grant funded added project hardening scope.

The City was awarded  $14.55 M in grant funds from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) for a total of nine water and sewer pump station upgrade and hardening projects—four of which are part of the five-year critical needs plan ($8.9 M). The other five projects are planned to start between 2026 through 2027 ($5.65 M). This grant funding adds infrastructure hardening scope requirements, beyond those previously identified in the Master Plans. Furthermore, FDEP intends to award the City a $7.6M grant for City-wide gravity sewer main replacement.

The estimated equivalent construction cost of projects underway (either in design or starting construction) is approximately $80M. 

The attached presentation provides additional details regarding the current funding gap on the 5-Year Critical Needs Plan. The most recent estimate to complete the 5-Year Critical Needs Plan is $167M—this includes $122.3M approved and funded, plus $8.9M of funded additional grant project hardening scope, plus $35.8 funding gap due to unforeseen conditions, market increases, and newly identified additional/fast-tracked projects.

The implementation of the identified critical needs projects is essential to continue     reducing the risk of water main breaks and sanitary sewage spills for the City. The following update is presented to the members of the Land Use and Sustainability Committee for discussion and further direction.