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Port Richey seeks state and federal help for stormwater study, lift‑station repairs and water‑plant planning
Summary
City Manager Matthew Coppner told the City Council the city applied for a $150,000 FDEM watershed/stormwater master‑plan grant and is pursuing Army Corps interest under both CAP (Section 103) and Section 205; council also authorized staff to apply for a state‑revolving‑fund loan to plan a potable water plant.
City Manager Matthew Coppner told the Port Richey City Council on Feb. 11 that staff submitted a stormwater master plan grant application to the Florida Department of Emergency Management seeking $150,000 of a $200,000 project to underpin the city’s stormwater and coastal resiliency work.
The master plan, Coppner said, would become “the backbone of practically everything we do with stormwater, as well as looking at our resiliency and coastal management efforts going down the road.” He said the city budgeted $50,000 this year and hoped to win the balance from FDEM.
Coppner also said Pasco County and the city submitted letters of interest to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to seek a study under the Corps’ CAP/Section 103 process; the Corps has signaled interest in two separate federal authorities for related work. Coppner said the Corps examined whether the scope fit Section 103 (coastal/storm surge) and also identified a potential Section 205 (riverine flooding) project to address inland flooding such as the high water on Sunset and Bay boulevards.
“If we get federal interest,” Coppner said, “we stand a possibility of actually having two projects come out of this now — one to address the storm surge issues which primarily are gonna be our fire department and our lift stations, and then the riverine flooding, which really is that blue sky flooding we experienced on Sunset Boulevard as well as Bay Boulevard.”
Council members heard that the Corps’ next step is a small study to determine federal interest; Coppner said the city expects to hear back in the near term about whether the Corps will advance to study funding.
On water‑system planning, the council approved a resolution authorizing the city to apply for the Florida State Revolving Fund loan program to finance planning and design for a potable water plant. Coppner said the planning grant/loan package is for the planning and design phase and that staff must submit the SRF loan application and receive council authorization to proceed.
The council voted to approve the resolution authorizing the SRF application (Resolution 25‑02). Coppner said the planning work and the stormwater master plan are intended to make the city more competitive for future state and federal grants for resilience and water infrastructure.
What happened next: staff will await FDEM and Corps responses and proceed with the SRF loan application process per the council’s authorization. Coppner said he would update the council as agencies respond.
