Thread: Miami Beach to spend up to $400 million to deal with flooding issues

Posted on Wednesday, 02.12.14

MIAMI BEACH

Miami Beach to spend up to $400 million to deal with flooding issues

Moses Schwartz calls a tow truck to retrieve his SUV on the 800 block of Alton Road in Miami Beach in October 2013. WALTER MICHOT / MIAMI HERALD STAFF

BY CHRISTINA VEIGA
CVEIGA@MIAMIHERALD.COM

Miami Beach, which sometimes floods from the bay even on a sunny day, is taking major steps to stay dry, with commissioners voting Wednesday to factor in higher tides and sea levels when planning for city projects.

The move is expected to double to $400 million the cost of keeping water out of Miami Beach’s streets.

The city still isn’t entirely sure how it will pay for the costly improvements, but hopes to tap into federal and state funds, grants and possibly borrow money against its utility accounts.

“There is a lot of money going into these resiliency issues, so we are hoping to tap into that,” City Manager Jimmy Morales said Wednesday evening.

Raising fees could also be an option to finance the approximate extra $200 million, he said.

The commission also voted unanimously to expedite the construction work along Alton Road, declaring the situation an emergency because of anticipated extreme high tides in October. With the declaration, the city can move more quickly to install three pump stations along Alton.

Additionally, city officials will talk to state officials about finishing their portion of the project in December, instead of next summer — even if it means lengthening the crews’ hours.

“We’re going to do this, tackle the immediate problem,” said Commissioner Jonah Wolfson.

With a largely new commission voted into office in November, the city has taken an urgent interest in stemming rising tides. Mayor Philip Levine immediately created a new commission committee to deal with flooding issues and appointed a task force of local residents. The new stormwater standards are a result of the work of these new groups.

Under the actions taken Wednesday by the commission, the city will:

• Raise the standards for all city projects as it relates to stormwater planning.

A previous commission in 2012 passed a master plan to deal with stormwater issues in the city. The plan was both hailed as groundbreaking and bashed as not going far enough to address the Beach’s perennial flooding issues.

On Wednesday, the critics won.

“You’ve got to deal with the realities of this,” said Commissioner Michael Grieco.

Under the new measures, the city would consider peak tides of 2.1 feet and an additional seven inches of sea level rise, as projected by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The old plan considered only mean tide levels of 0.5 feet, according to a city memo New projects will now have to plan for a total of 2.7 feet of water.

The city also would add up to 40 pump stations — which is where the majority of funds will be spent. In addition, the city will spend money on valves with backflow preventers so water doesn’t come in from the bay, along with larger and more pipes.

Currently, the city’s pumps rely on gravity to discharge water. But higher sea levels mean the ground is too saturated for water to move through it, Morales said. The result: Water backs up from the bay, coming through sewers in the South Beach neighborhoods around West Avenue, Sunset Harbor and North Bay Road.

“We have to forcefully move the water,” he said. “We’re preparing for the worst.”

But adding more stations might be problematic. Already, residents have fought City Hall after large, industrial-looking utilities were plunked in front of homes.
• Declare an emergency ahead of expected extreme high tides — allowing city administrators to waive competitive bidding for a contractor to start work on three new pump stations. The stations, expected to cost $11.2 million, would be located on the west side of Alton Road, at Sixth, 10th and 14th Streets.

A state project already underway on Alton Road spurred the need for quick action on behalf of the city, according to Morales.

The problem is that the existing drainage system along Alton Road handles runoff water for both the state road and for other parts of the city. But the ongoing FDOT project separates the pipes used by the state and by the city, and it doesn’t allow the city to tap into the discharge system anymore.

Morales took into account the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predictions when asking commissioners to approve the emergency pump station work. NOAA is predicting October tides that are 1.2 feet above the mean, for a flooding elevation of 1.87 feet.

The city waived bidding to hire Bergeron Land Development for the job. Bergeron is the same company doing work on Alton Road for the state.

A city memo notes that FDOT chose Bergeron though a public bidding process.

“To avoid problems and construction delays, the city believes that it would be in its best interest to use the same contractor selected by the FDOT procurement process,” according to a city memo.

• Negotiate with the Florida Department of Transportation on extending the hours of their crews working on the state portion of the Alton Road project. Typically, construction work is limited to certain hours to avoid bothering residents with noise.

Public Works Director Eric Carpenter said the measure allows the city manager to negotiate extended hours with the state. It’s not yet known what those hours would be.

The state originally expected to complete construction on Alton Road in summer 2015. With the new hours, and other measures pushed by the city, Miami Beach officials say the project could wrap up by Dec. 31.

“It’s going to be a whole new, drier world,” said Scott Robins, a member of the newly created Mayor's Blue Ribbon Panel on Flood Mitigation.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/02/1...up-to-400.html

Pinellas orders study of areas, services vulnerable to rising seas

CHRIS URSO/STAFF

The East Plant Water Pollution Control facility in Clearwater could be part of a study ordered by Pinellas commissioners on how rising sea level could affect county services. “Over the next 10, 20 years, we will see changes in the way we grow,” Commissioner Ken Welch says. “We have to build sea level rise into that because it affects everything that we do.”

BY CHRISTOPHER O’DONNELL
Tribune staff
Published: February 13, 2014 | Updated: February 13, 2014 at 12:12 AM

CLEARWATER — The pounding from Tropical Storm Debby in 2012 left just a sliver of sand on some Treasure Island beaches and exposed dunes on Pass-a-Grille to extreme high tides.

The damage from storm surge was costly, with those beaches and Upham Beach in line for a $16 million beach nourishment project this year. But it also served as a warning of how vulnerable peninsular Pinellas County is to projected rises in sea level in the coming decades.

“Last year Debby decimated our beaches — that was nothing,” said Kelli Levy, natural resources section manager. “Imagine us year after year getting hit like that.”

That is exactly what Pinellas County commissioners want the county staff to do.

Commissioners recently ordered the staff to move ahead with a study to highlight which land and county services are most vulnerable to sea level rise. County officials also are talking with scientists from local universities and agencies including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Army Corp. of Engineers to get expert predictions on what Pinellas can expect from future storms and floods.

The result could be a regional compact similar to one in South Florida where local governments have partnered to try to prepare for a phenomenon that officials fear could drastically change daily life.

“We definitely want an aggressive stance — we want it to be regional, and we want it to include the Tampa Bay area,” Commissioner Ken Welch said. “The first step would be a consensus on the studies that have been done.”

Though some still are skeptical about sea level rise, there is little doubt in the scientific community that higher air temperatures are resulting in more melting of snow and ice, raising the level of the oceans that cover two-thirds of Earth.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group established by the United Nations Environment Program, is forecasting a 2-foot mean sea level rise by the year 2100 unless action is taken to lower the emission of greenhouse gases.

“We can debate the amount or the cause, but there is no doubt in my mind it is rising,” said Gary Mitchum, professor and associate dean of the College of Marine Science at the University of South Florida. “We have very strong consensus that things are changing and sea level is going to rise.”

Problems arising from sea level rise would likely be felt well before the end of the century. Higher tides will accelerate erosion of beaches and the deterioration of sea walls and groins. Saltwater will penetrate deeper into groundwater, making freshwater springs undrinkable and causing more backflows of sewer systems.

The county’s next step is likely to be a vulnerability assessment similar to ones done for the cities of Safety Harbor and Gulfport by the University of Florida’s Pinellas County Extension Office. The study would highlight schools, roads, hospitals, infrastructure such as sewers and water plants and emergency-services providers that are most vulnerable and may have to be relocated. It would take about a year to complete, Levy said.

Commissioners also want to figure out how to incorporate the threat of sea level rise into future land-use planning, which could mean tough political decisions in the future about limiting development on the shoreline.

Also at risk would be the county’s beaches and its tourism economy, with erosion of beaches expected to accelerate.

Faced with the same threat, Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe and Palm Beach counties formed a compact to collaborate on planning and responses to rising seas and extreme weather.

A similar regional approach in the Bay area with local governments joining with groups such as the Tampa Bay Estuary and the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council may be the way forward, Welch said.

“Over the next 10, 20 years, we will see changes in the way we grow,” Welch said. “We have to build sea level rise into that because it affects everything that we do.”

codonnell@tampatrib.com
(727) 215-7654

http://tbo.com/pinellas-county/pinel...seas-20140213/