Hallandale Beach officials warn water and wastewater capacity could force development moratorium
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Summary
City staff told commissioners the citys water and wastewater systems are near current legal and contractual limits: current drinking-water production is about 7.5 million gallons per day (MGD) against a raw-water permit of 8.29 MGD and wastewater reserve to Hollywood is roughly 1.2 MGD; conversion to membrane treatment to meet PFAS rules and infrastructure upgrades will be needed to avoid curbs on new development.
Mayor Cooper and city staff heard a technical briefing Jan. 7 that laid out a narrow window for Hallandale Beach to expand service as the city moves to comply with new PFAS rules and accommodate projected growth.
"We are currently reaching the limits of our water and wastewater capacity," City Manager Dr. Earl told the commission, arguing the issue could require a future restriction on new development if the city cannot secure more capacity or complete upgrades.
City engineers and consultants explained the supply math: the city currently uses two treatment technologies — lime softening (1950 facility; 10 MGD design) and a membrane (nanofiltration) plant built in 2007 (6 MGD design, expandable to 13 MGD). Because the citys Biscayne Aquifer raw-water permit allows 8.29 MGD of withdrawal, and treatment processes incur losses, the plants effective drinking-water production is about 7.5 MGD (roughly 3.9 MGD from the lime-softening side and 3.6 MGD from the membrane side after processing losses), staff said.
Consultants and staff told the commission that meeting a projected 2050 average-day demand (roughly 9.710 MGD) and peak-day needs (about 12 MGD) requires phased upgrades. "To comply with PFAS we have to move to membrane treatment," the citys engineering lead said, and staff described a multi-step plan of adding RO (reverse-osmosis) and nanofiltration skids. Skid 1 is near commissioning, staff said; the design for skid 2 is expected to finish in the fall and construction could take roughly 18 months.
Vanessa Lee, director of Development Services, told commissioners that wastewater capacity is already constraining new applications: an outstanding application for about 4,000 residential units cannot proceed because the city lacks the demonstrated wastewater capacity the state and county require.
On the wastewater side, staff said the city currently averages about 7.5 MGD of flow and has a contractual reserve with the City of Hollywood of roughly 8.7135 MGD maximum, leaving about 1.2 MGD of available capacity. Engineering models presented to the commission calculated that long-term buildout would require as much as 11 MGD of wastewater capacity.
Commissioners pressed staff on options. The city has been supplementing supply from neighboring utilities, notably purchases from North Miami Beach, and staff said those arrangements have been used beyond emergency-only scenarios. City staff outlined three parallel paths: (1) convert treatment technology to comply with PFAS (phased RO/nano additions); (2) invest in infiltration-and-inflow (I&I) reduction and telemetry to reduce unaccounted-for flow (staff estimated up to a roughly 10% I&I reduction potential); and (3) pursue interlocal or capital solutions such as a new force main to Miami-Dade, negotiation for additional allocations with nearby utilities, or site acquisition and local treatment alternatives including a packaged plant.
Commissioner Butler raised energy and innovation questions, asking whether brine-energy recovery or geothermal options could offset the RO plants power needs; consultants said newer RO skids include energy-recovery devices and that innovation should be investigated for future design phases. City staff said RO skid 1 should be commissioned within "the next month or two," skid 2 design completion was expected around SeptemberOctober with bidding and construction to follow, and wastewater modeling updates and conceptual designs (including a potential force-main tie to Miami-Dade) were targeted for spring.
Next steps the commission directed staff to pursue included updating hydraulic and wastewater models (targeted for spring), accelerating design work on the next RO skid, expanding telemetry and I&I reduction efforts in the capital plan, and continuing negotiations with neighboring utilities for supplemental capacity. Commissioners emphasized the need to move quickly to avoid a scenario in which active development proposals must be curtailed because of infrastructure shortfalls.
Provenance: topicintro SEG 377 topfinish SEG 2311
