MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Thanks to a state grant, Miami-Dade County is launching a new pilot program aimed at cleaning up stormwater polluting Biscayne Bay.
Installation is almost complete, and if the new technology proves effective, it could be scaled countywide.
There’s big work being done on the Little River.
“Little River Basin is one of those that are high priority,” said Division of Environmental Resources Management Assistant Director Rashid Istambouli. “So this is what we’re going to be focusing on right now. Anything north of the bay.”
County workers are tearing up streets, digging big holes in the ground and burying huge concrete boxes that house state of the art filters specifically designed to clean up dirty water polluting Biscayne Bay.
“That filtration is going to allow to reduce petroleum hydrocarbons, nitrogen, phosphorus, things that we’re seeing that impacting the bay,” said Istambouli.
Local 10 News has been reporting on the big problems on the Little River since the mass fish kill in the summer of 2020, when over 27,000 marine species suffocated to death because of a dramatic loss of oxygen in pockets of the northern basin of Biscayne Bay.
The outfall of the Little River Canal was one of two ground zeros scientists believe triggered the deadly event.
“I think that’s the highest volume of bad water coming in right now for the North Bay,” said Dr. Todd Crowl, Director of the FIU Institute of Environment.
Even a year after the fish kill, oxygen levels remained dangerously low.
Miami-Dade Chief Bay Officer Irela Bague has been laser focused on cleaning up the Little River, which is loaded with deadly nutrients from failing septic tanks, sewage leaks, fertilizer run off and dirty stormwater.
“We already know that this is the biggest hotspot. And that’s where really, our state government leaders have asked us to really focus on first,” said Bague. “Attacking those stormwater systems surrounding those canals, we will try to see how much reduction in those nutrient loads we can we can achieve in a short amount of time.”
Thanks to a $1.5 million grant from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, which Miami-Dade County was able to match, a pilot program broke ground a few months ago installing high tech pollution reduction filters that will treat stormwater before it’s discharged into the bay.
“What we’re introducing here is more of an amplified or modified or improved manner in which we handle that water,” said Istambouli. “Not only is it going to still give you that capacity to handle the stormwater, but it’s going to give it some time to filter out trash (and) debris.”
Three notoriously-polluted sites along the Little River were identified to test the new technology.
Local 10 News was there when the last phase of the project was installed off Northwest 95th Street and Little River Drive earlier this month.
“We know septic to sewer is going to take a while and it’s very costly. However, implementing stormwater solutions is really where we can see some of those nutrient reductions quickly,” said Bague.”
The state is banking on it.
“That’s really the point of this grant, is to determine if these different technologies are effective and then once they are, then looking to see which ones are scalable and can be used throughout an entire system,” said Adam Blalock, Deputy Secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
It will take about a year of testing to see how well the new pilot program works. If it’s successful, the county could adopt into its stormwater master plan.
“We’ll also be encouraging our municipal partners to also attempt to install a lot of these solutions,” said Bague. “Because we’re all in this together.”
It is potentially a big step forward towards saving Biscayne Bay.
“We feel like we’re addressing all the different sources of nutrients into Biscayne Bay, trying to do as much as possible,” said Blalock. “I look forward to seeing how well the bay can improve over the next few years and into the future.”
The county is encouraging more state funding for similar projects that can really advance bay restoration efforts.
Each of the structures also will have a QR code that residents can scan to learn more about what the filters are for; that’s important so people can better understand what happens to stormwater and how littering on land has an impact on our bay and waterways.