Sunrise warns of roughly $200 million in unfunded utility mandates; commission approves rate study and sludge-hauling contract

City Manager Mark Lubelski and Utilities Director Rodrigo De Castro told the Sunrise City Commission on March 10 that new federal and state regulations—most notably EPA drinking-water limits for PFAS and stricter state rules on biosolids—will require large, largely unfunded investments in the city’s water and wastewater system.

"It is expected that more than $200,000,000 in investment on both capital improvements and operational costs will be necessary to comply with all those unfunded mandates," Rodrigo De Castro, director of utilities, said during a presentation to the commission.

Why it matters: Sunrise owns and operates a utility system that serves more than 63,000 meter accounts across Sunrise and parts of neighboring municipalities. Staff said the city already has some treatment capacity at the Sawgrass plant that removes PFAS, but other plants need upgrades before the EPA compliance deadline, and biosolids disposal rules are shrinking available land-application sites statewide, driving disposal costs sharply higher.

PFAS and…