The head of the Florida Keys’ water utility is pushing back against a recent news report that claimed a state agency had floated the idea of taking over the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority.
“To say that a regulatory agency is considering taking over the aqueduct authority is just not true,” FKAA executive director Greg Veliz told the Keys Weekly on April 18. “One speaker from the Keys got up during the public comment period of a recent public meeting of the South Florida Water Management District and started saying things.”
The SFWMD regulates the amount of water counties and cities can take from the Biscayne Aquifer. The Florida Keys currently pump about 22 million gallons of water per day.
That speaker at the SFWMD governing board’s April 13 meeting in Palm Beach was Capt. Ed Davidson, a Keys resident, former school board member and government gadfly and watchdog. A roughly 15-minute speech by Davidson to the SFWMD criticized FKAA’s lack of a plan to replace a 40-year-old pipe when it knew what the lifespan would be decades ago. He proceeded to suggest that Gov. Ron DeSantis should seize control of FKAA and put the agency into the hands of the SFWMD. That happened in the Keys during the 1980s, when then-Gov. Bob Graham threw out FKAA commissioners and placed the SFWMD in control before new pipes went into the ground. Once the new water main was installed, the SFWMD members were gradually phased out as Graham appointed new FKAA commissioners.
“The aqueduct has such a soiled history that the last time they built the pipeline, Graham seized control of the aqueduct because of the lack of confidence and lack of competence,” Davidson told the Keys Weekly. “He oversaw the pipeline. I think that’s clearly needed here.
“We have known for some time that our transmission main was in desperate need of replacement. Why did they sit on their asses for the last 40 years?” he continued.
Veliz added that SFWMD board member Cheryl Meads, former Islamorada resident and councilwoman, likely invited Davidson to the meeting.
But, Veliz said, he had not been able to reach Meads since learning about Davidson’s comments at the April 13 meeting from another news outlet. Meads did not return phone calls and texts from the Keys Weekly as of presstime.
“As a representative of a regulatory agency, I would think a callback would be appropriate given the topic of discussion,” Veliz said, inviting the Keys Weekly to ask him “absolutely anything” about the three consecutive water main breaks in the pipeline that brings drinking water down the Florida Keys from the mainland. The breaks occurred in the Upper Keys in early March and caused temporary water outages at all points south of the breaks. It affected schools, businesses and many households in the Keys.
The breaks also underscored the need for expediency in replacing all 130 miles of water pipeline throughout the Florida Keys, where a reverse osmosis plant is also under construction on Stock Island to turn ocean water into drinking water, such as occurs on ships.
During repair of the recent water main breaks, photos circulated showing the jarring deterioration of parts of the existing pipeline, which was completed 41 years ago in 1982.
“The pictures are disturbing; let’s face it,” Veliz said, acknowledging the community’s concerns
about the time that will be required to replace all 130 miles of pipeline, which prompted many residents to ask why the FKAA had waited so long to begin its replacement.
“If we have an Achilles heel in this issue, perhaps it was not looking forward enough,” Veliz told the Keys Weekly on April 18. “But we currently have $115 million worth of projects underway that are fully funded. And we have another 12 projects totaling another $100 or so million waiting to begin. We were successful last year in getting state and federal funding to the tune of about $37 million. We’ve been spending a lot of time in Tallahassee and we have lobbyists working on our funding requests. Congressman Carlos Gimenez is also helping us on the federal level.”
With a mile of pipe costing from $7 million to $10 million, a complete replacement of the Keys water main will be in the hundreds of millions — if not more than $1 billion when all is said and done.
Veliz added that water officials since March have decreased the water pressure that’s running through the pipeline in an effort to “hopefully help increase the longevity of the pipeline. But am I
so naive to think that we won’t have another break in the next 20 or 30 years while we’re replacing the pipe? No way. In fact, I know we’ll have several more breaks, and we’ll fix those as we did the recent ones. Right now, anything north of a pipeline break will still be fed water as usual from Florida City. But anything south of the break will be affected.”
The upcoming reverse osmosis plant on Stock Island offers hope for backup water when finished in 2025.
“If by 2025 or 2027, I can generate 8 million gallons a day we’ll be able to back pump water to where it’s needed,” Veliz said, adding that additional RO plants are being considered in Marathon and one other location in the Keys.
“A lot has been said about us not having a plan,” he added, referring to Davidson’s and Meads’ remarks at the SFWMD meeting. “But we have a plan. We’re designing projects to fit our funding sources. I’m very, very confident with where we are right now.”
When asked about any precedent for having a state agency step in to take over the FKAA operations, Veliz said, “About 40 years ago, there was an elected water board at FKAA and the governor did step in and ask the legislature to investigate some financial problems, and they did step in. But now we’re in a completely different era. There have been absolutely no findings of wrongdoing whatsoever.”
Davidson wasn’t the only Keys resident who trekked to Palm Beach for the SFWMD Governing Board on April 13. Islamorada residents Sue Miller and Joan Scholz also expressed their concern with the recent pipe breaks and the time it’ll take to replace all 130 miles of aging water line. Both asked for the SFWMD’s help to address an urgent matter.
“Perhaps the district can provide a strong reminder that it’s extremely urgent for our community to do all we can to remedy the water situation before it becomes a true catastrophic disaster,” Miller said.
— Jim McCarthy contributed to this report.
