Miami-Dade has a Biscayne Bay czar: She’s got ideas for cleaning things up
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Biscayne Bay on the Brink
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For the first time this year, Miami-Dade County named a Biscayne Bay chief.
The job is a big one — figuring out what’s polluting the bay and how to fix it. But the office comes with no budget and no power to actually do anything — a disappointment to water quality advocates who would like to see Biscayne Bay placed at the heart of county growth and development policy.
Still, having a bay advocate on the county payroll is a major step, and the new czar, Irela Bagué, has drawn up a list of priorities and already helped secure one potentially significant win: convincing county commissioners to pass a fertilizer ordinance that aims to reduce nutrients going into the bay. The rules prohibit the use of fertilizer during the rainy season because it washes off into the bay and doesn’t stay on lawns long enough to help plants.
She also issued a Biscayne Bay report card, a tool she says will help educate the public on how individual actions can have an impact. Not a single area received a “good” score, with northern and inshore areas falling to “poor” from “fair” ratings.
Bagué — a public relations consultant, environmental activist and former board member of the South Florida Water Management District — sees her role as cheerleader and organizer, bringing county departments, cities and state agencies together to deal with bay issues and set priorities. Here are the ones that top her list:
▪ Speed up septic conversions. It’s already the county’s most ambitious and costliest infrastructure project: running sewer lines to replace thousands of aging septic tanks, which increasingly leach into ground and bay waters — a pollution problem worsened by sea rise. Bagué is pushing for more money now for what will eventually cost billions.
A $126 million bond program over the next two years is intended to help connect approximately 1,000 commercial properties in flood-prone zones. There’s also a plan to run sewer lines to allow 41 homes and 300 properties in the Little River area to get off septic in the next 12 months, funded in part by a grant from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Longer term, there’s a $90 million county program to extend sewer lines into areas with 12,000 properties threatened by rising groundwater levels.
▪ Spend $20 million. Last December, the state and county each pledged $10 million for water quality seagrass and coral reef projects. One critical item is a water-quality study to identify pollution hot spots the county should tackle first, including increasing monitoring and analysis of nutrients in the Little River. Another project would also pay for $1.15 million in new sewage lines to homes phasing out septic tanks.
▪ Upgrade storm drains. Two county agencies — the Department of Environmental Resource and the Public Works Department — are working to install metal screens on stormwater drains to trap street litter and organic matter before it enters the system. The county has ordered 10,000 and will begin installing them this year.
▪ Meet with experts. In July, the county commission approved the creation of a multidisciplinary advisory board to help set goals and coordinate work. In October the county approved the nomination of 12 experts who will serve a four-year term. They include Joan Browder, a NOAA scientist for more than 40 years; Todd Crowl, director of FIU’s Institute of Environment; and Diego Lirman, head of the University of Miami’s Rescue a Reef program. The first meeting is scheduled for Dec. 6.
“This is a group bringing in all the agencies, all the cities, all the stakeholder groups around the same table,” she said, hoping the group will help her steer restoration plans in a “coordinated, holistic way.”
▪ Get a license plate. One way to generate revenue for Bagué’s office could be selling “Protect Biscayne Bay” specialty license plate. A Stiltsville house at sunset was the winning design among three motifs proposed by the county for a public vote. Now Bagué and the Miami Foundation, which will manage the funds in partnership with the county, are working to sell at least 3,000 pre-sale vouchers before the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles agrees to actually produce the plates.
▪ Tap private donors. The county and the Miami Foundation are partnering to establish a Biscayne Bay Recovery Fund so people will be able to make donations for Biscayne Bay projects.
▪ Show the money. The last study assessing the value of Biscayne Bay to the economy was done in 2005. If Miami-Dade wants to show investors and potential government funding sources why a clean bay is good for business, then the county needs to update the data, Bagué said.
“We now sell $40 million penthouses in Miami; we need to better assess how much the bay means for business here,” Bagué said.
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