Cities Step Up Septic-to-Sewer Conversions

In the Corona del Mar neighborhood of North Miami Beach, work crews operating digging equipment recently laid down rows of new PVC pipes and other sewer infrastructure below ground along several blocks of single-family homes.

With the new infrastructure in place, the city plans on connecting 130 private properties that currently rely on septic tanks for human waste removal, Andrea Suarez, North Miami Beach water director, told the Biscayne Times. The city will also pay for the removal of old septic tanks.

“That’s a big break for the homeowners,” Suarez said. “They don’t have to pay for anything, just the sewer fees moving forward. We are covering the connection fee and the work that has to be done by the contractor.”

To fund the connections, the city cobbled together $1.1 million from grants provided by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the North Miami Beach Community Redevelopment Agency and the federal American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief stimulus package approved by Congress in 2021, said Suarez.

Across Miami-Dade, the county and cities with their own water and sewer departments, like North Miami Beach, have formulated ambitious plans to eliminate around 120,000 septic tanks, one of the leading contributors to the pollution of Biscayne Bay and corresponding fish kills in recent years.

But without a dedicated source of funding for the massive infrastructure overhaul needed for thousands of homes and commercial buildings to connect to sewer systems, elected leaders and their staffs are scouring for piecemeal state and federal government handouts, experts told the Times.

It’s akin to scrounging for loose change wherever you can find it so you can have enough money to pay a plumber to fix clogged pipes.

“It’s a matter of where we get the money from,” Roy Coley, Miami-Dade Water and Sewer director, said in a phone interview. “The only way for the government to raise money is from businesses and residents. No one has identified that at this point.”

Until that happens, Miami-Dade must rely on applying for state and federal grants annually, Coley said. The county provides water and sewer services to unincorporated parts of the county and 21 municipalities, including Biscayne Park, El Portal, Miami Shores and Miami. North Miami Beach and 12 other cities have their own water and sewer departments, including Miami Beach and North Miami.

The county also has earmarked $126 million from a $2.9 billion G.O. bond program approved by voters in 2004 to convert more than 1,000 buildings in commercial corridors across Miami-Dade from septic tanks to the sewer system.

Converting septic tank property owners to sewer service was a key conclusion of a study a few years ago executed by Miami-Dade’s Biscayne Bay task force, Coley said.

“The No. 1 priority in the report was eliminating failing septic tanks producing nutrients into Biscayne Bay,” Coley said. “The nutrients over sustain the algae population in the water.”

The higher concentration of algae has had dire effects on Biscayne Bay, such as blocking sunlight from reaching seagrass beds on the ocean floor, Coley explained. Also, when the algae dies off, its decomposition consumes oxygen in the water, which is a main driver of fish kills and other adverse effects.

The county’s strategy is to prioritize properties that need to replace aging septic tanks on the verge of failing, Coley said. Currently, 9,500 homes and commercial buildings have been identified, but he says that figure will balloon to 13,500 by 2040 as sea level rises.

In the past two years, Miami-Dade secured $21.9 million in grants from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to fund the infrastructure projects so that homes with septic tanks can convert to the sewer system. In December, the department awarded the county another $14.5 million for its septic tank conversion projects.

More recently, the county nabbed $20 million from the federal government’s $1.7 trillion omnibus appropriations bill for the current fiscal year passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden. Also secured was about $2.6 million from the office of Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart and Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar, Coley said.

However, Miami-Dade is primarily footing the bill to install the infrastructure, but most property owners must bear the cost of hooking up to the sewer lines, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

In some cases, the county has used grant money to cover a property owners’ expenses, such as the $4.4 million Miami-Dade received from the state to hook up single-family homes in Miami’s Little River neighborhood, Coley said. But in the unincorporated northeast Miami-Dade neighborhood of Ojus, 100 property owners voted to create a special taxing district to pay for their hookups.

“The county sold bonds to raise the funds for their sewer connections,” Coley said. “And the payments will be added to their annual property tax bill.”

A spokesperson for Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told the Times that this year’s approved budget includes $5 million from the county general fund to set up a trust fund for low-income property owners who need financial assistance to convert from septic to sewer.

“The trust fund is being created and we expect it to be in our financial system soon,” the spokesperson said. “In the meantime, the county is funding connections for low-income households and local businesses in the target areas of the project through existing grants.”

It’s not just the county cherry-picking funding sources for septic-to-sewer conversions. In North Miami, the city is relying on $2.8 million in state grants to install new infrastructure and extend the sewer and collection system to 221 properties with septic tanks by August 2024.

While the city has an executed grant agreement for $500,000, the remaining $2.3 million is tentatively earmarked, Wisler Pierre-Louis, North Miami Public Works director, said in an email.

“The city is developing a plan for a public outreach campaign to get the property owners on board,” said Pierre-Louis. “The plan will include direct messaging to the property owners including educational meetings, customer service support, mailers and the like.”

While he insists Miami-Dade has been able to lay down most of the infrastructure needed to convert septic tank properties, the county needs more money to reach the goal of connecting 120,000 homes and commercial buildings.

“What we don’t have is a clear path to the total amount of money we need,” Coley said. “We have made the case to the federal government about the benefits this will have on Biscayne Bay, the Everglades and our entire environment. We are hopeful we will get substantially more.”