State to send $38M to the Keys to fix its Hurricane Irma-damaged desalination plant and sewer systems

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday announced the Florida Keys will receive $38 million in grant money to replace a desalination water plant and fix wastewater pipes in Key West and Marathon — all damaged by Hurricane Irma.

The $38 million is part of an overall $84 million pot set aside for Irma-related infrastructure repairs from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The state distributes the money through its Rebuild Florida program.

The city of Key West will receive $1.7 million for wastewater pipe repair and the city of Marathon will receive $6.2 million for wastewater pump stations and chemical storage areas.

Most of the money, though, will go to the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority, which will get $30.6 million to replace its desalination plant on Stock Island.

“In the event of a failure of a bridge or line, populations here in Key West and Stock Island would be without potable water,” DeSantis said, making the announcement outside the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority’s desalination plant on waterfront property.

“This grant will repair and replace the current Stock Island reverse osmosis facility to provide that critical backup source of water,” the governor said.

The Stock Island plant, which was last upgraded in the early 1990s, can produce up to 2 million gallons a day and was fired up after Irma, according to WLRN.

Freshwater gets to the Keys through a pipeline that stretches all the way to Florida City, where the water is pumped. The plant, badly in need of repairs, can make some in case of an emergency.

DeSantis said his administration has been committed to Hurricane Irma recovery since he took office.

Irma struck more than one year before DeSantis became governor.

“This is an iconic part of Florida, these Florida Keys,” DeSantis said, standing on waterfront property that houses FKAA and Keys Energy Services. “We understood the Keys were ground zero for the impact of that storm.”

This story was originally published January 30, 2020 at 5:22 PM.

Gwen Filosa

Miami Herald

Gwen Filosa covers Key West and the Lower Florida Keys for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald and lives in Key West. She was part of the staff at the New Orleans Times-Picayune that in 2005 won two Pulitzer Prizes for coverage of Hurricane Katrina. She graduated from Indiana University.