Advisory board hears technical progress on Biscayne Bay reasonable assurance plan; $20 million in state Bay grants sustained

Commissioner Mickey Steinberg on Tuesday presided over a Miami-Dade Biscayne Bay Watershed Management Advisory Board meeting where county staff delivered a technical progress update on the Reasonable Assurance Plan (RAP) intended to reduce nutrient pollution in Biscayne Bay.

The RAP update presented by Pamela (staff member) described the completed hydrological-bio­logical model, the project verification tool for stormwater and wastewater projects, and a proposed timeline to submit a draft RAP to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection next summer with a final submission by the end of 2026. Jess McCarty, executive assistant county attorney (participating from Tallahassee), also briefed the board on the 2025 Florida legislative session and confirmed that the state's annual Biscayne Bay grant line remains funded at $20,000,000.

The RAP outlines three steps: identify pollutants of concern (total nitrogen, total phosphorus and chlorophyll a), set water-quality targets and allocate required load reductions to sources and projects. Pamela told the board the county's technical team has constructed an integrated groundwater-surface-water model and will run calibration and validation in the coming months to compare historical data with modeled results. "The hydrological model has been constructed," she said, adding that model outputs will allow the team to estimate how proposed projects reduce nutrient loads.

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