‘Complicated road to recovery’: New Biscayne Bay board targets septic-to-sewer conversion
Miami-Dade’s new Biscayne Bay Watershed Management Advisory Board met for the first time this week to help Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and commissioners figure out what to do to save the county’s crown jewel.
Eighteen members including water quality scientists, business people and elected officials said they are ready to roll up their sleeves to rescue the bay from worsening pollution that has caused fish kills and the death of large swaths of seagrass meadows. The board, which will eventually have 21 members, will work on a watershed management action plan to tackle the sources of pollution and improve water quality in the system.
They also want the county to set stricter limits on nutrient pollution and include other pollutants such as plastic in the list of dirty stuff that should not be allowed in the bay. It’s a daunting task, considering the county still has a long way to go in measuring and identifying the sources of pollution that goes into the bay.
At the top of the group’s to-do list is septic to sewer conversion, the county’s most expensive plan but also what scientists consider a key long-term solution for the bay’s troubles. Addressing stormwater runoff is also a priority.
“Everything that happens on land ends up in the bay, and nutrient pollution that is causing seagrass die-offs and fish kills comes from these sources,” said the county’s Chief Bay Officer Irela Bagué, who was appointed last year to coordinate the county’s work on the bay.
Bagué has advocated for cooperation and collaboration among all levels of government and the private sector to reflect different interests and agendas surrounding the bay. She hopes the group will help her steer restoration plans in a “coordinated, holistic way.”
She also wants the board to help the county lobby the state for more funds, especially for hooking up thousands of homes and businesses to sewer lines, an expensive proposition for the 120,000-plus tanks estimated to still exist. A 2018 county report said switching just 83,000 of them would cost $3.3 billion. The county is starting to address the problem with funds from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the federal American Rescue Plan.
The group’s first meeting agenda on Monday had no action items to be voted on, and no legislative wish list of its own because the bay’s advisory board’s wish list must be folded into the Board of County Commissioners’ agenda. The good news is that septic-to-sewer conversion is already at the top of that list, Bague said.
In the first meeting the bay czar sought to clarify confusion about another group that’s being created to address the bay’s woes, the state’s Biscayne Bay Commission. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation in the summer creating the nine-member commission which will work within the DEP.
Lawmakers described the commission as a “clearinghouse” for Biscayne Bay improvement plans. Some county bay board will serve on the state commission but the list of appointees is being finalized ahead of a tentative first meeting planned for January, according to Bague.
“This commission is a sign that the state is finally making Biscayne Bay a priority,” Bague said, adding the county’s advisory board will take its plans and projects to the commission so that it can seek state funding and support from the federal government and other agencies. The county will coordinate and implement infrastructure and recovery projects, she said.
Some projects that are already underway are being covered by $20 million in new funding — a $10 million grant from the state which was matched by $10 million from Miami-Dade. The county has started to connect some homes to sewer in the Little River area, installing massive sewer lines in the area.
In a presentation to the new watershed advisory board, Pamela Sweeney, manager of the restoration and enhancement section at the county’s Division of Environmental Resources Management, said Miami-Dade is also using the money to look deeper at water quality in three problematic canals that dump pollution into the bay: the Little River, the Biscayne canal and the Miami River. The county is increasing monitoring and pinpointing hot spots, she said.
Sweeney highlighted the seagrass dieoff in the northern part of the bay, which has lost as much as 90% of its cover in the past two decades in some areas. That’s why the county is also focusing on habitat restoration including seagrass and areas along the county’s shoreline.
“The Biscayne Bay collapse is a complicated story and it’s going to be a complicated road to recovery,” she said.
The members of the new advisory board are:
▪ Danielle Cohen Higgins, Miami-Dade County commissioner
▪ Jean Monestime, Miami-Dade County commissioner
▪ Rebeca Sosa, Miami-Dade County commissioner
▪ Vince Lago, Coral Gables Mayor
▪ Rachel Streitfeld, North Bay Village commissioner
▪ Crystal Wagar, City of Miami Shores councilmember
▪ Brett Bibeau, Miami River Commission representative
▪ Todd Crowl, Florida International University
▪ Diego Lirman, University of Miami
▪ Joan Browder, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
▪ Erik Stabenau, Biscayne National Park
▪ Julissa Kepner, from the Greater Miami Visitors and Convention Bureau
▪ Spencer Crowley, representing the Builders Association of South Florida
▪ Jannek Cederberg, from the Florida Engineers Society-Miami
▪ Gerald C. McGinley Jr., from the Marine Council
▪ John L. Alger, representing the Dade County Farm Bureau
▪ Roberto Torres, from the Nature Conservancy
▪ Dave Doebler from the Biscayne Bay Marine Health Coalition
This story was originally published December 8, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
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