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FSAWWA Speaking Out—Emilie Moore
Keeping Florida’s Infrastructure Resilience on the Radar
Emilie Moore, P.E., PMP, ENV SP
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Chair, FSAWWA
Discussions of resilience are everywhere and Florida is making great strides in providing funding to address flooding and sea level rise resilience. In addition to improving Florida’s resilience to rising waters, resilience funding will improve the condition of Florida’s infrastructure in areas such as, but not limited to, coastal systems, drinking water, energy, roads, schools, stormwater, transit, and wastewater.
Table 1. Resilient Florida Grant Program Awards for Fiscal Year 2021-22, Sample Projects (source:FDEP)
City of Gainesville Alachua Wastewater Lift Station Force Main Resiliency Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) Reduction
Broward County Parks and Recreation Broward Hardening Seawalls of Intracoastal at Hollywood North Beach $11,865,000 $4,746,000
$18,000,000 $18,000,000
City of Hollywood Broward Tidal Flooding Mitigation and Shoreline Protection $28,000,000 $14,112,000
City of Jacksonville Duval Stormwater Pump Station $40,000,000 $20,000,000
Miami-Dade County Miami Dade Water Reset Increasing the Resiliency of Drinking Water Infrastructure
Miami-Dade County Miami Dade
Schenley Park Septic-to-Sewer Conversion Village of Islamorada Monroe Islamorada Transmission Main Adaptation
Palm Beach County Palm Beach Australian Avenue Drainage Improvements
Pinellas County Utilities Pinellas Mobile Home Park Wastewater $20,250,000 15,187,500
$55,000,000 $27,500,000
$35,000,000 $17,500,000
$31,063,067 $13,357,119
$25,000,000 $25,000,000
Florida’s Infrastructure Report Card
In the 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, Florida’s grade for 14 infrastructure categories was listed overall as a “C”, which is defined as “mediocre” (ASCE, 2021).
The breakdown in the 14 categories is: S Aviation (C+) S Bridges (B) S Coastal areas (C-) S Dams (D-) S Drinking water (C) S Energy (C+) S Levees (D+) S Ports (B) S Roads (C+) S Schools (D+) S Solid waste (B+) S Stormwater (C-) S Transit (C) S Wastewater (C)
Overall, America’s infrastructure received a grade of “C-“ in 2021.
Florida’s Flooding and Sea Level Rise Resilience
Since 2019, Florida has committed more than $1 billion for flooding and sea level rise resilience programs. Last year’s Senate Bill 1954 (Statewide Flooding and Sea Level Rise Resilience) was signed into law on May 12, 2021, and targets a coordinated approach to Florida’s coastal and inland resiliency known as the Resilient Florida Program (Florida Department of Environmental Protection [FDEP], 2022).
The program includes these components: S Resilient Florida Grants S Statewide Assessment S Sea Level Impact Projection (SLIP) Study and Living Shorelines
The Resilient Florida Grant Program (RFGP) awards for Fiscal Year (FY) 2021-22 Continued on page 74
High tide flooding along Sunrise Drive South in St. Petersburg, 2015. (photo: Emilie Moore)
Table 2. 2022-23 Statewide Flooding and Sea Level Rise Resilience Plan, Sample Projects (source:FDEP)
Gulf County Gulf Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility $28,462,469 $27,893,220
City of Miami Beach Miami Dade
Miami-Dade County Miami Dade
City of Miami Miami Dade Sebastian River Improvement District (SRID) Treatment and Storage First Street Flood Mitigation and Sea Level Rise Adaptation Public Housing Resiliency Upgrades in the Little River Adaptation Action Area Design and Construction of Allapattah Flood Improvements (AFI) NW 7 Ave. to 14 Ave., NW 23 St. to 31 St. $38,000,000 $19,000,000
$67,034,197 $20,110,259
$30,000,000 $15,000,000
$31,376,186 $15,688,093
City of Delray Beach Palm Beach Tropic Isle Roadway and Underground Utility Improvements
St. Johns River Water Management District St. Johns River Water Management District Putnam C-10 Water Management Area (WMA) Putnam Bayard Point Land Acquisition $39,600,000 $19,800,000
$40,000,000 $20,000,000
$17,000,000 $8,500,000
Continued from page 72 included more that $404 million for 113 projects in 25 Florida counties. A sample of large 2021-22 RFGP awards is listed in Table 1. These projects vary in duration from one to five years.
The FDEP completed the 2022-23 Statewide Flooding and Sea Level Rise Resilience Plan as required by the 2021 resilience law. The 2022-23 plan lists 76 infrastructure projects totaling over $270 million in estimated requested funding over a three-year period.
The types of resiliency projects include: S Water and wastewater facilities S Stormwater collection and pumping S Flood mitigation S Living shorelines S Pump stations S Libraries S Equipment (generators and valves) S Seawalls S Mangrove restoration S Land restoration S Roadways S Buildings S Public housing S Land restoration
A sample of large 2022-23 projects is listed in Table 2.
In addition to improving Florida’s flooding and sea level rise resilience, these projects should help improve Florida’s ASCE Infrastructure Report Card ratings.
Funding for the Path Forward
As we navigate the financial roadmaps to bring projects to reality, Florida’s grants programs are available, including: S Wastewater Grants S Innovative Technologies Grants S Biscayne Bay, Springs Coast, and Water
Quality Improvement Grants S FY 2022-23 Resilient Florida – Planning
Grants
The portal for grant submittals is located at Grants|Water Quality Dashboard (protectingfloridatogether.gov).
It’s an exciting time in Florida for building our state’s resilience and making sizeable improvements to our aging infrastructure. S
