20 Jun Toxic algae, leaking septic tanks, aging pipes could be part of $100 million water bond

By Kimberly Miller
Courtesy of The Palm Beach Post

Lake Clarke is so corrupted by nitrogen and phosphorus it was declared an impaired waterway last fall.

Three blue-green algae health alerts have been issued since mid-May for a West Palm Beach spillway where new apartments and kayak launches are planned.

And it’s still a crapshoot each dry season whether the Loxahatchee River will get enough freshwater to protect its stately cypress trees from ocean influxes.

No one disputes the need for water fixes in Palm Beach County where a watershed 42 times the size of the Lake Worth Lagoon drains into the beleaguered estuary with every rainfall, but whether a proposed $100 million bond is the answer is up for debate.

Proponents of the bond, which is scheduled to be discussed Tuesday at a county commission workshop, argue the $2.50 property owners would pay annually per $100,000 in taxable value is worth it to clean up and replumb water resources from Delray Beach to Jupiter.

In March, the median assessed taxable value of a home in Palm Beach County was about $295,000, so half of the county’s homeowners would pay less than $7.50 per year for the water bond. With a homestead exemption of $50,000, the cost would be about $6.20 per year.

Projects proposed include $25 million to convert septic tanks to central sewer systems, $25 million for stormwater improvements that would divert or filter fertilizer-spiked runoff before it reaches sensitive waterways, and $10 million to buy environmentally important properties such as submerged lands in the Lake Worth Lagoon and western parcels that could restore habitat connections.

“It’s affordable and it is an urgent need,” said Everglades Law Center Executive Director Lisa Interlandi. “We might not want to pay for clean water but what are we going to do if we don’t have it? If our waterways turn green, it’s going to destroy our economy.”

A forecast surge in commercial and residential development from a pandemic-fueled migration of people to Palm Beach County also is heightening the sense of urgency around the region’s water woes. The growth will only put more stress on natural resources, some fear, with water at the top of the list.

Water needs a priority, but cost-of-living surge worries some leaders 

Several county commissioners, however, have questioned the need for the bond when $75 million from the American Rescue Plan Act has already been earmarked for water-related projects and hundreds of millions more could come from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs act, which was signed by President Biden last fall.

The bond must pass commission muster before it could go to voters in November.

Commissioner Maria Marino, who represents northern Palm Beach County, said she’s hesitant to ask taxpayers for money when they are already facing record-high inflation, ballooning housing costs and $5-a-gallon gas.

Commissioner Melissa McKinlay, who represents the western reaches of the county, agreed.

“I just don’t think now is the time to tax them with the economic hardships that some of our families are facing,” said McKinlay, who also is concerned the matching fund requirement in the bond would leave out poor cities that couldn’t pony up the money. “If you’d asked me in 2019 if this is something we should do, I would have thought it was a good idea.”

This is not the first time Palm Beach county mulls floating water bond

A general obligation bond for environmental and water projects was first broached in November 2019. By early 2020, possible projects were presented to commissioners for what was then a 20-year, $150 million bond. Plans were proposed to put it on the ballot in November 2020.

The pandemic shut down all talk of the bond in March 2020. It didn’t resurface until this year when the commission also is looking at asking voters for a $200 million affordable housing bond.

“We think there is room for both,” said Interlandi. “Both of these are critical issues that the voters should have the ability to consider and make their own decisions on.”

Deborah Drum, Palm Beach County director of Environmental Resources, said an informal email to cities about stormwater needs returned $25 million in potential projects. Another $35 million was estimated from cities on what it would cost to convert septic tanks to sewer connections.

A 2018 survey by the Florida Department of Health tallied about 22,000 septic systems in the Lake Worth Lagoon watershed, including 5,500 within municipalities. While newer septic systems pose fewer problems to the environment, aging systems near bodies of water can leak, increasing nitrogen and phosphorus levels.

When the Florida Department of Environmental Protection declared Lake Clarke an impaired waterway in September, the 3,600-person town of Lake Clark Shores decided the most efficient way to clean up the water was to reduce its number of septic tanks by about 700.

Lake Clarke Shores Town Manager Daniel P. Clark said that could cost as much as $26,000 per home.

Lake Clarke Shores homeowner Tim Daughtry thinks it could be double that. Although the U.S. Census 2020 American Community Survey estimated the median household income in Lake Clarke Shores at $109,000, the sewer connection cost would be a stretch for some, Daughtry said.

“We have a number of elderly people on fixed incomes in our neighborhood that can’t afford it,” Daughtry said. “Everyone says there’s other funding out there, and that’s all well and good, but the rubber meets the road when those funding streams become available.”

Debate between water ‘wish list’ versus water ‘critical needs’ list

There also is $20 million earmarked in the bond to restore upland and wetland areas in the Loxahatchee River watershed to help provide fresh water to the river during the dry season. The county has been opposed to an Army Corps plan that would build an above-ground reservoir on the Mecca Farms land for a fresh water supply.

Another $20 million would be dedicated to climate change mitigation projects identified in a resilience action plan that a consultant is expected to deliver in the fall of 2025.

Some county commissioners have criticized what they said are vague project demands without lists of exactly where each dollar would be spent.

“We don’t have a menu,” Marino said in an April 12 commission meeting. “We are saying this is our wish list, but at the end of the day, it’s a wish list, it’s not a critical needs list.”

County Mayor Dave Kerner, who has pushed the water bond since 2019, said it’s premature to get into too much detail on projects.

“This is going to be a dynamic need over 20 years so it’s difficult for me to prioritize something at this point,” he said during the April meeting.

Drum said the need for water fixes exceeds even what the $100 million can do.

On May 19, a rapid response team from the South Florida Water Management District was sent to an area of the C-51 canal to treat a blue-green algae bloom, which is partly fed by contaminated runoff. The algae can release cyanotoxins, and the canal is connected to the Lake Worth Lagoon and West Palm Beach’s drinking water supply by way of Grassy Waters Preserve.

The three blue-green algae health alerts along the C-51 in West Palm Beach were for an area near the lagoon spillway where a mixed-use development of apartments, a grocery store and shops is planned. Drawings show people kayaking and paddle-boarding in the canal from launches along its northern rim.

Farther north on the lagoon, posh new condominiums have $10 million-plus price tags, and a planned luxury apartment complex touts a rendering showing a white sand beach and blue water within eyesight of Peanut Island, which was shut down briefly in 2016 because of a blue-green algae bloom.

“It’s going to get worse and it’s going to cost more money to fix it,” said Karen Marcus, a former Palm Beach County commissioner and president of Sustainable Palm Beach County, which is supporting the bond. “At some point in time, it may be unfixable.”