The Miami Herald EditorialPosted on Sun, Jul. 29, 2012A broken water line in Little Haiti floods homes and some streets waist-high. The aging wastewater treatment plant on Virginia Key spills 19 million gallons of untreated waste into the ocean. A water main break in Hialeah creates a sinkhole. A burst pipe pours untreated sewage straight into Biscayne Bay.Over the past two years broken sewer pipes have spewed 47 million gallons of stinky waste onto roads and homes and into Miami-Dade waterways all the way from farmlands in the southern tip of the county to the northern border with Broward, which also is facing major sewer system breakdowns.
With 7,500 miles of sewer lines built into Miami-Dade County’s antiquated system, which is a half-century old in some sections, and with 15 municipal water and/or sewer utilities and the county’s Water and Sewer Department responsible for the upgrades, there has been a lot of finger-pointing but little action to tackle this billion-dollar mess. Indeed, 20 years ago a Miami-Dade grand jury warned that “the Miami River and Biscayne Bay would experience the worst environmental catastrophes in modern history” if nothing got done.
Now, the Environmental Protection Agency is demanding action and the county is in negotiations with federal authorities to come up with a solid plan to fix the treatment plants and faulty pipes.
The last time EPA stepped in because of the county’s neglect was in 1996 when stormwater drainage problems were harming the Miami River and Biscayne Bay. The county has spent $600 million over that time, saving about 100 million gallons of water a day.
Yet the sewer part of the job keeps getting put off — at residents’ peril and with great economic risk to the area’s vibrant tourism industry. Instead of having a pro-active program that repairs aging pipes and upgrades wastewater stations, the county for years used excess money from the residents’ sewer fees to balance the county’s overall budget.
It’s time to increase fees and target that money directly to the repairs that are needed. As it is, the fees county water users pay are among the lowest of any comparable-sized area.
Whether Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez is re-elected or Commission Chairman Joe Martinez gets the voters’ nod, the most important issue affecting the health, safety and economic well-being of the county’s residents is the antiquated water and sewer system.
Last year, Mr. Gimenez offered a budget that took $25 million from the sewer funds as a “loan” to balance the county’s books — an effort aimed at not having to lay off more county workers or reduce crucial services to residents. This year’s budget proposal does not dip into the sewer funds and the loan will start getting repaid in 2014. That’s the right thing to do.
Complicating the problem are about 100 miles of substandard piping laid out by a now-defunct company, including the sewer main running under Government Cut to Virginia Key — a potential catastrophe for this area’s tourism.
Mr. Gimenez and Mr. Martinez have pledged to work on a solution, and Mr. Gimenez’s proposed budget includes fee increases that would be staggered over several years to help pay for the upgrades. The mayor also says the county can bond about $300 million and is working with the EPA to come up with a plan to meet federal clean water requirements. Good.
True, this is an inherited mess. Past administrations delayed the inevitable. But no more excuses. Let’s fix this economic disaster in the making. It’s past time.