Lauderdale to borrow $200M to fix sewers
But full overhaul will cost millions more
After several years in which streets, yards and waterways were polluted with the contents of Fort Lauderdale toilets, elected officials Tuesday night took a major step toward fixing it.
By a 4-1 vote, the city agreed to borrow $200 million to fix the worst parts of the failing water-sewer system.
That’s just a fraction of the work that needs to be done to seal the leaky, deteriorating pipes, whose cracks and breaks allowed 20.6 million gallons of raw sewage to spill into local waterways in three years. But City Manager Lee Feldman said work on underground pipes can’t all be done at once.
“I think we all recognize $200 million is not going to solve the infrastructure issues,” Mayor Jack Seiler said, “but it’s going to get us on the path without any further delay.”
Commissioner Dean Trantalis voted no.
As the city approaches March elections, the bursting sewer pipes and boil-water notices are at the front of voters’ and elected officials’ minds. For much of 2017, residents had more exposure to the sight and scent of sewage than they wanted. Sewage lapped over the tops of man-
hole covers, streaming into the roads after heavy rains. Until December, the city’s sewer system was dependent on trucks to pump sewage from one manhole and dump it in another — a smelly process that brought the infrastructure woes to many residents’ attention.
Some have had an even closer encounter in recent years. Sewage flooded parking lots, seeped into car floors, and gurgled up into showers.
Fort Lauderdale is under pressure by state environmental officials to rebuild the most fragile parts of the sewer system in the next eight years, to prevent more spills. The city spilled so much sewage in such a short time — 49 spills from 2014 to 2017 — the state Department of Environmental Protection engaged in an enforcement action, or consent order, against the city.
“We have a timing issue,” Feldman said. The city has four to five years “at the max” to take care of the most pressing projects the state is requiring, he said.
The bond will be repaid using customers’ utility payments. Fort Lauderdale’s utility rates go up 5 percent each year.
Neighborhoods all over the city need work: Victoria Park, Rio Vista, Bermuda Riviera and Croissant Park, among others.
Water pipes crossing the New River and serving the downtown need to be replaced. One of the underwater pipes has “suffered repeated failures,” a city memo says. A $33.5 million slate of upgrades at the city’s Fiveash Regional Water Treatment Plant is needed, and so is $10 million in design work for a replacement plant.
The state is requiring pipes on Northeast 25th Avenue, Northeast 38th Street and Las Olas Boulevard to be replaced, among many others. And the city has less than two years to complete a citywide assessment of the main pipes and pump stations.
Commissioner Dean Trantalis voted against the bond issue. He complained that he didn’t understand the “full scope” of the city’s infrastructure repair needs and wasn’t convinced the full $200 million was needed immediately.
“Do we really need to borrow $200 million tonight?” Trantalis asked, suggesting the city might save money by borrowing only a portion now.
Over the next five years, Fort Lauderdale should complete $460 million in utilities work, Feldman said. The bond issue will pay for $200 million, and the remainder will be paid for with water-sewer funds each year.
A consultant put the total 20-year needs at $1.4 billion.
The city’s been studying the issue for at least two years, while completing projects on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Pressured to act more quickly by Commissioner Bruce Roberts, Feldman in September said he got the message: “Go big, go fast,” he said.
His reply became the slogan for the city’s program to rebuild the watersewer system.
The city hasn’t suffered a major pipe break this year.