Globe Miami Times Connecting you to the Pulse of Globe Miami
By: Fred Barcon
On May 18, 2020, the Tri-City Regional Sanitary District (TRSD) Board passed a motion to move forward with their plans to build a third wastewater treatment plant.
Many of you are familiar with my past editorials, in which I point out several flaws with the TRSD Board’s plan to build a third wastewater treatment plant.
In addition to the issues I pointed out previously, I would like to point out additional reasons this project should not move forward:
BHP did not authorize the use of the land TRSD had proposed for the wastewater treatment plant. Instead, BHP is suggesting a different parcel of property that is further away, thus requiring additional, expensive lift station and force-fed lines, and it’s in close proximity to the Miami Schools.
This also means TRSD’s engineer, Mike Krebs, will be paid handsomely to reengineer the project- at the tax-payers’ expense.
TRSD Board and staff are keeping the meetings with BHP “proprietary” due to the sensitive nature of the relocation of the wastewater treatment plant.
TRSD is also keeping their agreement with the Hospital proprietary- a sure sign that what’s being discussed will add cost to the project.
A taxing district should disclose what they expect taxpayers to pay for.
TRSD Board has not met with the Miami Unified School District to present their plans and request permission to build a smelly sewer lift station in front of the high school and an even more toxic-smelling sewer plant behind the schools.
Why hasn’t TRSD met with the Miami Unified School District? Because they don’t want opposition.
Sure, TRSD can propose to build an “odorless” system, but what they won’t tell you is that the cost to do so would add millions to the budget.
The TRSD Board has not received permission from Walmart to build the sewer lift station behind the Walmart building. Why? If Walmart says, “No” which is likely, the project will need to be re-engineered, taking time and increasing the costs with more “engineering” required.
A multi-million-dollar project should not move forward without proper authorization from all involved stakeholders and proper due diligence.
TRSD claims they cannot partner with Miami because they would have to build a costly lift station to pump uphill 200 feet to tie-in with Miami’s wastewater treatment plant.
The truth is it’s only 42 feet- and that lift station has already been built as part of Miami’s project. TRSD could simply tie-in to the Miami system for minimal costs.
Partnership with Globe and Miami would shave tens of millions off the project costs and reduce the construction timeframe by several years.
Why is TRSD hell-bent on building an expensive, unneeded, third wastewater treatment plant at the taxpayers’ expense?
Does it escape TRSD that the majority of the residents of Tri-City are senior citizens on fixed income, living at the poverty level?
Burdening the residents with expensive utility bills they cannot afford is unacceptable!
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