Miami-Dade County staff told the Biscayne Bay Watershed Management Advisory Board on Oct. 3 that more than $50 million in state grant funding has supported restoration, septic-to-sewer conversion, pilot stormwater-treatment installations and habitat-restoration planning in Biscayne Bay.

Pamela (Durham staff) and consultant Mike Wessel of Environmental Science Associates (ESA) described a portfolio of projects funded by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection that includes septic-to-sewer conversions, technology pilots to reduce stormwater nutrient loads, living-shoreline guidance, sponge restoration pilot studies and a water-quality dashboard used to develop the county’s Reasonable Assurance Plan (RAP).

Why it matters: The county is pursuing a RAP so that DEP and EPA can approve a county-led alternative to a formal TMDL path. The RAP requires a pollutant-loading model, an agreed reference (healthy) period for the bay and an inventory of projects that together will demonstrate the county can meet numeric nutrient targets and restore designated uses.

Grant and project highlights
- Funding: Pamela told the board that Miami-Dade has received more than $50 million in state funding over five years for Biscayne Bay restoration activities; the state’s initial $10 million pot in 2020 helped launch a larger program of projects.
- Septic-to-sewer conversions: State-supported work focuses on highly vulnerable areas (Little River, Biscayne Canal). The county and state are working to pay the private-side connections for some homes so that infrastructure laid by the county results in actual household connections. Pamela said the grant program will fund conversions and associated private-side connections for roughly 300 homes within the priority basins; other vulnerable homes are part of the broader water utility Connect To Protect program and a longer timeline.
- Stormwater pilot projects: Phase 1 sampling covered 50 stormwater structures at three locations. Technologies trialed include inlet screens and filter baskets, Ferguson storm basins, Ecosense EcoVault chambers, Hydro International (“Hydro Scribe”) and “Jellyfish” filtration devices, smart sponge filters, filter cages/line skimmers and pervious pavers. The county is also piloting “smart ponds” for controlled release and polishing of stormwater flows in Archer Creek.
- Smart sewer coverage: The county has installed networked manhole sensors across the service area (Pamela said roughly 427 devices deployed) that monitor pressure/volume and have helped utilities predict and prevent sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs). Pamela reported the system has prevented about 150 SSOs since deployment; she said state funding for the sensor program was not renewed and the county temporarily covered dashboard/communication costs while working with municipalities to identify long-term support.
- Habitat work: The grants funded living-shoreline guidance to help property owners and municipalities choose green/gray hybrid solutions; staff also piloted sponge-based filter restoration at a candidate site near the Julia Tuttle Causeway.

RAP and data dashboard
- Goal and timeline: The county’s RAP effort aims to identify a “healthy reference period” and pollutant loads associated with that period; county staff said the plan-of-study was approved by DEP. The timeline presented kept the county on track to submit a draft RAP to DEP with stakeholder review in 2026 and a final RAP targeted for December 2026, subject to DEP and EPA review.
- Dashboard: ESA’s Mike Wessel highlighted an internal data dashboard that compiles long-term county water-quality sampling (monthly records dating decades back), NEXRAD rainfall data, canal flow records and seagrass surveys. The dashboard is being used to identify monitoring stations contributing disproportionately to impairments and to test candidate reference periods (the team is focusing analyses on the 1995–2009 era, with other windows under review).

Questions and follow-up requests: Board members and municipal officials asked for comparative data for city-by-city filtration and catch-basin protection; Mayor Vince Lago requested county staff share relative municipality-level results so cities can see where they lead or lag. Rachel Silverstein of Miami Waterkeeper asked the board to request six-month monitoring reports on agreed metrics — violations, inspections, seagrass and water-quality indicators — so the public can track whether institutional changes and projects are delivering measurable improvements.

Limitations and next steps: Presenters noted that restoring a large estuary is complex and may require decades of work; DEP’s numeric criteria for estuaries focus on total nitrogen, total phosphorus and chlorophyll, which the RAP must address. County staff said modeling and stakeholder review remain underway, and they committed to providing updates at future board meetings and to continue working with municipalities and academic partners to refine monitoring and project selection.