Fort Lauderdale negotiates new water and wastewater consent orders; staff reports broad progress on force‑main and backup‑power projects

City of Fort Lauderdale staff told the Infrastructure Task Force on Monday that the city has closed an earlier water consent order and is negotiating new draft consent orders with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for the water distribution network and for additional inflow-and-infiltration (I&I) work on the sewer system.

“My name is Abby Graham. I’m the assistant director,” Abby Graham said as she opened the presentation, summarizing the city’s consent‑order history and the department’s current negotiations. She told the panel the 2017 sewer consent order (amended in 2020) and a water consent order tied to a 2019 raw‑water line break have driven a multi‑year program of repairs and upgrades.

Why it matters: the consent orders require the city to inventory and repair aging infrastructure, reduce sanitary sewer overflows and improve system reliability. City staff said the most recent water consent order (OGC 16‑37) was closed after the city fulfilled mapping and valve‑inventory obligations and that an agreement addressing the broader water distribution network remains in draft.

Staff described the scope of the proposed water…