truckers and I said, you know, the loading zone is available. Why are you parked in the middle of the street? And they, you know, what they say to me is, well, I can park wherever I want. These guys know, this is the never- ending challenge to get the ones that know the ones that are educated. And just one
suggestion I'd like to make because I've watched this for four years and the whole interactions with the parking enforcement. Your parking enforcement people are wonderful, but they're too lenient. They come and they shoe them away instead of giving them tickets. And I think that's part of the issue. These
guys keep, it's a cat-and- mouse game. These regulars keep getting away with the same behavior. I've seen trucks here with no markings, with no license plates. There these people don't have parking permits yet. They come every day from Broward County with the laundry. Thank you, Jane.
Thank you, Jane. It's always good to hear you and thank you for your participation on those repeat offenders. Uh, William, when when your officers uh enforcement officers see someone that they know is an a visual offender of the
freight loading zone issue, can't they call police and ask police to do enforcement? So, we actually Doesn't that carry a greater weight? Um, so, and I'll I'll um defer if if if the lieutenant wants to speak. So they
might be able to actually provide a moving violation whereas our violations are going to go against the company vehicle. So we will write against the license plate and the DOT number because that's the thing because if if when they are getting the violation okay you might not know once a second time
you might be in a hurry what but when you are an habitual offender yes give them the ticket on the company but for the company it's just the price of doing business but when you are giving them the ticket with the police that is actually going against the license right of that driver lieutenant
yes let me jump over here um hello to everybody Everybody, good afternoon. Yes. So, a lot of times what ends up happening with us is that parking will come out. They'll identify an issue if the person's giving them a hard time. They don't want to move the vehicle. Uh, usually when it's more than just getting
a citation, um, or if they know it's a repeat offender, somebody they've dealt with numerous times, and then we do write them a moving citation, which then goes towards the driver. At that point, that person's getting tickets, that person's not responsible. Uh, so but that's what would address what Jane is
complaining about. That person that is not respecting the the parking enforcement because it it's not on them. It's on the company. They're not paying that ticket. It's the it's going after the pocket of their other employer. But now if it goes after their license and
it's points on their license, they could risk losing that license alto together eventually. Right? So, one of the things that we do is that our guys are out there constantly, even the ones that you see on foot, on bike. Um, and they're writing citations all the time for the same stuff. Uh, but when we write it,
it's, you know, it goes towards the driver. So, now it's a bigger fine, it's a moving citation. It's much more involved uh than the regular parking citations. Um, when when we get called over, we also do the same thing. So, they're doing it and we're also doing it at the same time. Uh, we actually have multiple
details that do that throughout the city together. um not so much together. Although when there is something that they have going on, they need us, we're there. Um but we do our own freight loading zones. Uh we have uh like our motormen do a lot of freight freight loading zone details alone. Uh we have our officers are doing
them as well. Um everybody out there is pretty much working on the same stuff. Okay, it'll be great. Um, and when we have the next presentation, I'll just to get some data from the police department on the numbers of of freight loading zone uh enforcement as moving
violations. Excellent. We can get that for you. That'd be great. Can I ask a dumb question? Yeah. Never question. It doesn't make and obviously it makes sense to somebody to have two different departments doing the same thing, but you know, in it seems like wouldn't it
just be more efficient to have one department handling all of these violations? What? I'm sure there's a reason for it. I just don't know what it is. So, please educate me. Parking can't write moving violations. So, every violation that we write is is to the item. But the one thing I will
say is that in my mind, um, while there comes a point where the the driver there's going to be a point where the driver, for example, will feel the moving violation from the police department. But if the with with us for
example, if there is a delivery company that brings the same vehicle on the beach, our violations increase, our right ofways increase by the vehicle. So we don't care who the driver is. If that same truck is violated a fourth time, on the fourth time it's a $10,000 violation. And so at that point in time,
we've caught the company's attention. Um and so one of the things right now is we are um sitting down when companies come to us relief and we're creating in our minds a structured program on okay this is your first time coming to us for a little relief we're now having a
conversation there's no more relief. So, if you get into a situation where your trucks are receiving, you know,5 and $10,000 fines on the beach, you know, that that's going to be something that you're going to have to absorb because when you come to renew your permits for the next year, you will
have a choice of renew your permits and pay all your violations or don't renew your permits. And that will be a different discussion um that we can talk about um you know with the companies, with the delivery companies, with the with the local companies that are receiving the deliveries, things of that nature. Okay. Okay, great. Great.
Thank you so much. Told you. So, for these two, do you want to bring both of these items back next month? Yes. And then again in like in the beginning of the summer for a complete update of how they're working. Yeah. But I love to bring back an item
to look at the at the times the times for the freight loading zones and if we know what are hot spots. If we if we maybe there would be a way to get like a heat map of what are those areas where we have the highest amounts of of these
um violations by day parts and see you know maybe that could lead to some sort of recommendation on the hours of for these uh freight freight loading zones. Yeah. I mean the tricky thing on the hours is that if in so many parts of our neighborhood they're mixed use right. So
they're residential right adjacent to and in theory 7 o'clock should be fine but if the trucks are queuing up at 6:45 and backing up to get back into the thing and idling their refrigerator truck motors and all that stuff and nobody really wants to be woken up to
that by at 6:45. I'm not that concerned about the earlier time. What I'm concerned is about peak peak hour rush hour traffic. Yes. I'm concerned about the morning time because we know that is affecting our residents quality of life. I've heard it from South Fifth and I've heard the same complaints where you've been addressing
the quality of life issues at the the Deco Plage. But the other complaint that we obviously know of and we all have experienced it and have sit in that traffic is the peak hour traffic. Uh which that becomes not only a quality of life issue becomes a safety issue when
our roads become clogged uh because you have Cisco making a delivery. Uh Cisco, what's that? I said poor Cisco. Poor Cisco. So yeah. So, so if we could uh try to bring that back. Do you think next month is sufficient time for you? Do you need
two months? Um I mean I I will I will always defer to a little bit more time, commissioner. Um just bring it back in two months. Appreciate that very much. All right. Thank you, William. All right. And with that, um we can go to item number five.
Okay. Item number five is consider amendments to the land development regulations to establish a temporary deregulation initiative to activate vacant retail properties and fill spaces along commercial corridors such as Lincoln Road, Washington Avenue, 71st Street, and Collins Avenue, and North
Beach. This was a dual referral to the planning board. So, this is an item I've placed on the on the agenda because I I am very concerned about the conditions of retail uh of the retail environment on Lincoln Road. The businesses are
suffering and it's not even that the businesses are suffering. The businesses don't exist how they should be existing. I think we would be having uh a good a good problem ironically if we could say the businesses were suffering. Well, no,
the retail is empty and we need to think creatively outside the box on how do we help businesses fill these empty spaces. And you know, we've heard we've heard from from people over time about issues
having to do with permitting. We've heard with issues having to do with fees. We've heard with issues having to do with process. We've all have heard that how much we miss the Lincoln Road of the past.
Everyone loved SCORE. Everyone loved Van Dykes. Everyone loved Kong Riverhouse. Everyone now enjoys Mila. Everyone enjoys Oro. But the reality is that if we if we want if we wanted Van Dyes to come back
today, Tom, could they could Van Dyes open today as of right on Lincoln Road? Based upon their oload, they would require a cup. Based upon their offload, they would require a cup. Correct. So even a lot of our of our large spaces
on Lincoln Road that sit empty. If a large restaurant wanted to come in and occupy one of the larger spaces on Lincoln Road, let's say the space that score used to occupy, which is a major space right in the heart of our uh
commercial corridor there on Lincoln Road that has sat empty, I don't know, it feels like for 10 years maybe at least a restaurant wouldn't be able to open there as of right. Correct. And you see that to me is a challenge because at a time when there
is such a crazy amount of vacancies on Lincoln Road and on Washington Avenue and on other corridors, I think we need to be doing everything that we can to get out of the way of business opening.
And so and so I brought I've brought forward uh this this item. I don't think it's it's an issue for for a restaurant that has more than 200 seats to open up without a cup in some of these major
corridors. Um, I don't have an issue with um with with some of these establishments having indoor entertainment. Indoor entertainment on an area like Lincoln Road without a cup
because I think we need to test it. What we know is that the current regulation is failing Lincoln Road. What we know is that new businesses, many of them go out of business before they even open on on Lincoln Road. How
long did it take Andre Kes to open uh on Lincoln Road? The CUP process, both the application going before the board, that was probably four to five months. Then they had to get permitting. Then they had to
finish all of the construction. And so it was probably over a year. It felt like it was probably more like three years from the entire process all put together. And so I want to be very cautious and very measured with this.
This is a very delicate step forward. Um because I want us to test this for a one-year period. Let's see for a one-year period. Let's say let's tell the business community this is your incentive
to get tenants into your spaces. If there is ever a moment to say to say we as landlords will not be greedy and we will be willing to lower our rents, it's now when the city is cutting red tape for a one-year period to help us get
good quality businesses into these spaces. And so I'm proposing for us to test this for a one-year period. I'm proposing that we amend this ordinance that's before us to include a penalty pro provision that if there is a violation of this ordinance and the
person let's say had entertainment that they lose that entertainment component but I think we have to do something because the status quo is yielding us a status quo on the economy it's not a growing economy right now on road it is
a suffering economy and it's an alarm on us to be able to to to to to do something about this. And I think this is one of the few things we can do on a temporary basis, especially now that we have Senate Bill 180 that has suspended
some of our recent legislations that we have passed. So, in that same spirit, you know, since Senate Bill 180 has suspended temporarily some of the other regulations that we've put in place, well, let's see what let's see if we can drive this policy forward to help businesses open a little bit more
quickly in these important corridors. Commissioner B, I don't know if you have any questions, comments on this. No, I I like the direction of this. I but this this is geared to incentivize kind of larger businesses, restaurants that might want indoor entertainment or
it seems like right. Well, even Van Dyes, I mean, think about it like I don't consider Van Dyes to have been a large establishment, right? But they wouldn't be able to reopen today. Understood. So the and this doesn't address what I'm talking about, but I don't I don't think anything could other
than landlords really reducing their rates is how do we get the littleer non-national chain stores um to open up because in addition to missing Van Dykes and some of the other businesses you mentioned, you know, the quirky little
retail stores um I mean you can't afford to to have a store there unless it's a marketing loss leader um or a popup that is, you know, for a particular event. So, which is a different conversation of this than this. So, I I am supportive of this. Um,
I wish there were a way that we could do something equivalent to incentivize smaller businesses coming back, but I don't know what that would be. So, and I hope that, you know, once you see restaurants and cafes going in, I I would hope that then that would create
the pedestrian activity that then would create spillover economic impact for smaller stores to make it viable for because like you look at, you know, again, you mentioned uh large retail national chains, Cheesecake Factory,
Cheesecake Factory came in, they have a spillover effect on some of the other retail. It's families. You see a waiting line outside of Cheesecake Factories sometimes and then you see and I've heard from some of the businesses in that area that they have benefit some
of the non restaurants have benefit because of the spillover effect that Cheesecake Factory has in the economy of that area. If we can get more of these establishments, but not national brands, you know, to come in and open up like
what we used to have, it can support and provide spillover effect to some of the other uses that used to be on Link Road. Yeah. I mean, to get a Ricky's back or Pink Palm Pro produce, whatever that that store was, it had like all the good gifts and stuff because that's when
you're waiting for your table someplace, that's where you go peruse around with your family. Um, and you know, I love having multiple restaurant choices. That's great. And and places to go here. Live music is always fantastic. But, you know, we we want to be able to offer on
Lincoln Road something to do other than to eat. So, of course, um, I am supportive of this and, you know, anybody who has ideas other than holding our landlord's feet over the fire to drop their rates, I you know, I I think that's our next wish. And and
and again, the the goal is to test this for one year. Let's test this for one year. If if anyone that that uh uses this ordinance to open up on Lincoln Road through through an expedited process without going for a cup is found
in violation, let's include in in the policy the penalty of losing the privilege and then they will have to go and get the cup as a penalty at that point, but not make the cup the requirement to get their foot into the door because we're just putting
businesses out of business before they even open up. And just to make clear to anybody listening, this is not that you would open up and you would only be able to be there for a year. No, it's that this window of opportunity is for a year and then once you're there and as long as you're a good operator, you can stay
in perpetuity. And that's how it becomes an incentive to the property owner to say now that the city of Miami Beach has given us this one-year window where they are waving some of these requirements and cutting some red tape is our incentive now then as private property
owners to encourage us to get our tenants in there because they'll be able to open up quicker. Especially when you consider that some of these tenants oftent times, not always, but oftentimes they're wise enough that they're able to negotiate. Okay, you pay a lower rent
until you get your approval from from the city. So the ten so the landlord knows, okay, this is the time while while while this expedited approval process is in place to get my tenants into this commercial space. Are there members of the public wishing to speak
on this item? Seeing none in person, seeing none in Zoom, uh can we show this item adopted by acclamation as amended? I'll move it. All right. as we can show that adopted.
All right, with that uh let's call item number six. Okay, item number six is discuss review discuss and review design options and maintenance strategies for Miami Beach red sidewalks.
Hi, John. Good afternoon, commission. So, um I have to say this is a tough one for you to be stepping into. It's very emotionally fraught. Um there's a lot of pros and cons of doing one thing or
another and I am not super psyched about where we are as of today's conversation. So, I want to have a conversation, then I'm going to um now that you're here and on board since you've inherited this this viper's nest
of of fun, um let's let's put our heads back at it and come back in a couple of months. Um because here's here's the thing. Um the well, I'll let you present the item and then I'll I'll come back to it. Okay. How's that sound? That sounds great. So, you know, our
proposal was to continue to use the Miami Red sidewalks where applicable, which would obviously be when we have large sections a block worth being redone, neighborhood improvement projects, large utility projects, anything where we are removing
large segments of sidewalk. And then we also have the cases with county and FOT owned roadways where we need to negotiate the maintenance agreement with them if we do the red sidewalks. And we certainly think that's doable. Um especially moving forward and after, you
know, recent review of uh previous agreements. I think now we have a better vision moving forward when we do make these agreements with FDOT or with the county. So here's here's my frustration and this is not a you thing that you know this has been going on for quite some time
long before you got here. Um, in July there was a meeting at the DRB where one of the members provided the history of how the Miami Beach Red color concrete idea came to light by Carl Fischer. Whoever this person is is not accurate.
Um, so this is not something that was built into Miami Beach in the 20s. It was something that was unveiled. The best that we can find is from the 1950s. Um, I love the idea of red sidewalks. I think is really cool and fun. I do not
love the idea of how they look and how they um wear over time. They're between 20 and 50% more expensive. Um even if there's work being done and there's a temporary patch put on, as we all know, temporary patches end up being, you know, instead of two weeks, it could be two years. And you know, through no
fault of ours, just the way things go. They wear unevenly. They, you know, we've got um retail operators, shopkeepers trying to do the right thing and either pressure washing and blasting the hell out of it or painting it to try to make make it look better. It just
looks terrible. So instead of like having the effect of welcome to fabulous Miami Beach, like my dude, what's wrong with the city? We can't even get the sidewalks looking decent. I don't I'm not suggesting we abandon it entirely. And and I guess my frustration is and I think it's through the transition um
over the last number of months there had been conversation about how do we um take the concept of the red sidewalk and do it in a way as not ripping up all of the existing sidewalks but as we go forward how do we take the concept and
honor it in a way that is easier to maintain. So, is it by having, you know, a foot of brick pavers going all the way down, you know, a few feet in from the curb or closer to the retail side? Is it having, you know, a a section that can
be more easily maintained to indicate that this is, you know, a path, a red sidewalk path, as opposed to the entirety of the sidewalk looking atrocious? because I would imagine it's much easier to to maintain brick pavers or a a stretch of red rather than, you
know, having to rip up an entire sidewalk and all that that entails. And so, again, I'm not suggesting we get rid of the the red sidewalks. I'm just suggesting that, you know, kind of continuing the status quo was not to me a good enough solution. So, I would like
to um continue this for another couple of months. Sure. and you know, let's let's get together, talk, figure out ideas, maybe get I don't know who else involved who who might have some design ideas, but um it's not exactly analogous, but some of
the det I'm not talking about something that elaborate because that's pretty, you know, that's redoing entire pavements, but maybe using that as a basis point to to start jinning up some ideas of how do we do this in a way that we can transition to something that's symbolically representative without
making our sidewalks like look like hell. Absolutely. Okay. And since we're in the sunshine, I'll just say from my perspective, I think, you know, we we can identify areas of our city where it would be appropriate to have those red sidewalks and then in
the areas where we don't have the red sidewalks and we just go to simple gray. I think that the combination and though I like the idea of the of the combination, the thought behind it of having uh you know a strip of red or a strip of a brick combined, I think it
just you know these are sidewalks that have work done. There's utility that run under under these these sidewalks. Um and so I would just say just the simplicity of it. Um the focus should be ultimately on the architecture. you know
that that is the focus the architecture of of our of our city uh not necessarily our sidewalks and I think we can go in a simple approach identifying which roadways and which districts should be red and identifying then which areas
should just be the more efficient and easier to maintain gray. Yeah. I mean, um, if the desired effect is to make Miami Beach look really special by having red sidewalks and the actual effect is to make Miami Beach look really run down by having red sidewalks, something that doesn't make
sense and it's really not worth doing because it's not it's expensive and it's it's not providing the desired outcome. So, um, so that's my wish. I'd like to give you two months. Does that work? No, that's fine. That won't sound good and I appreciate the guidance. November
sounds good. Okay, there's no November meeting, so it'll be the one after November. Okay, so you got you got even more time. All right, with that, any members of the public wishing to speak on this item? Seeing none in person and none on Zoom,
we can proceed to item number seven. We're just clicking along here. We sure are. Okay. Item number seven is discuss the North Beach Water Quality and Park View Canal Report. All right, I see we have Amy Nolles, our chief resiliency
officer, uh, to give us an update. Okay. Well, good afternoon. Amy Nolles, chief resilience officer. I'm here today to give you an update on how we're doing with Park View Canal. It continues to be a really significant priority for us. I'm joined today by our new public works director, John Norris, as well, and
we're happy to give you a joint update. We have 15 items in the memo. Uh we have a lot of initiatives that came out of the presentation from March uh when we were up here for oh about an hour and a half going through all the many details of the uh most recent UN report. Amy, you shouldn't tell us that because
now we're going to want to make you break that record. I'd be happy to. But um I'd be happy to go through all 15 or if there's any priorities you'd like to hear about, we can do that as well. Hopefully you've been receiving the weekly um LTC's being sent. Uh we just released another uh
monthly update to the community and we're doing everything we can to get the word out. Um have we completed uh the relining uh and the and the and the repairing of the cleanouts at Biscane B Beach Elementary?
Yes. So we're very far along. We should complete this weekend. What they had to start with is they have to first clean the lines which that's all been completed 100%. They need to add cleanouts for access and uh for future cleaning of the lines. They've done 13
cleanouts. That's 100% complete. They had four point repairs. Point repair is where you have a break in the line that they actually have to dig up. So that does take additional time. All of those point repairs have been completed and they have completed 700 linear feet out of the,290
linear feet that needs to be lined on the property. So there are a few more pipe segments to be rem uh that remain to be lined and should be completed this weekend. We hope the weather holds out because that does impact their ability
to do the work, but if not they will get it in the following weekend. Nick, uh and let me just ask, have we heard from Miami date county? Has Miami date county come in and pe you know there's there's areas that we control then there's the areas that we don't control.
This can be tele clearly an area we don't control. Then the private outfalls, it's the other area uh of critical significance that we do not control and we've been asking uh Miami Day County who has jurisdiction over those to come in uh and uh and and look
at those and inspect those. Has that happened? Um I'm not sure if they've done inspections, but we've certainly brought it to their intention. Their focus was uh the Biscane Beach Elementary. uh we did meet with them and we gave them an overview of our findings. We provided them a full presentation from the M
study and the professor actually provided that data to the county which they really appreciated. They provided um a letter to the school board to address these issues and that's really been their focus. We've let them know that there's other outfalls that we you know need help with. We want to make sure everyone is in compliance. That's
really important to us. Um and so they are aware. So, but we're not aware of any how can we get a report from Durm as to whether any inspections have taken place on these private outfalls because that's a concern. Yeah, we we can ask um they're they're
aware of our concerns and and we can ask for a status update. Okay. Um while you've got access to the facility on the weekends to finish the repairs, is that can we just bring people on to inspect while they're there
to inspect the pipelining? Yeah. No, inspect the private outfalls. But the private outfalls would be on the Park View side, I think, is what we're referring to. Yeah. It's it's other properties along the canal, not necessarily the school. Any private properties that do have outfalls. Um, so along the school, along
the canal, not the school, sorry. Um, the Tatum waterway, there's there's many private as well. Private meaning pro like private private property outfalls. And they have class 2 permits from Durm um any storm water system. Jason. Okay. Um, and then um from what
you I understanding that you're not done with the repairs yet, but you're almost done. what or is it too early to tell what you have seen and been able to clear out and repair? Is that um as much as a a source for of the
pollution as we had anticipated? Are you how are you feeling about what it's going to show when it's all done? you know, because there was when you looked at the map, there was that parking lot behind CVS and then there was Biscane um Beach Elementary that were like the two
blaring areas. So, what are your thoughts? Yeah, that's an excellent question and it's one that we recently were discussing um with Dr. Solo Gabriel. So the the intericoxy was so high in the groundwater at Piscane Beach Elementary
that we do believe it's going to take many months for that to dissipate and she was unable to kind of give us an actual um number. What was that level? I'm sorry that you mentioned the uh the level of intera um underneath the school was was so high
as well as at the outfall into the canal. we do expect it to be many months before, you know, that actually dissipates because the groundwater doesn't, you know, move as, you know, as fast as as maybe you think it would. So, she wasn't able to put an actual um prediction on that, but we think it'll
take it will take months, but we'll continue to look at the area. We'll probably have to do a follow-up study at some point. We'd like to get some of this work done where we go in and do an intense sampling uh program again. Is there any way to mitigate that to um uh
speed up the process by which it dissipates? I mean, not that this is an EPA super fund site, thank God. Um it's our own little mini version of that, but you know, when they have these horrific super fund sites, there are all kinds of other things they can do rather rather
than just, you know, fixing the problem um to contain the outcome of the problem, right? so that it doesn't just naturally we're not waiting for it to naturally just dissipate into the water. Um, is there a way to capture that somehow and and
speed that whole thing up? Well, we can look into that further, but because I mean this is a very different substance. You know, usually with a super fun fight, they're looking to contain, they're looking to treat, they're looking to add monitoring wells to see where it's it's moving. So, this is just a little bit different because it doesn't meet that type of criteria.
And so, it's very clear. I mean, it's, you know, you're telling us that there the groundwater had elevated levels of of of the bacteria at Biscane Beach Elementary. Biscane Beach Elementary, it's directly across the street from the
pump station, pump station 23. And we're hoping uh that that the elevated level of the bacteria Biscane Beach Elementary is a result of issues of the of the pipes that we are repairing and fixing right now. Biscane
Beach Elementary. I want to make sure I want to get absolute, you know, absolute without any doubt of confirmation that pump station 23 is not leaking, is
not the source of the groundwater contamination uh that that you know exists below Biscane Beach Elementary and that is affecting um that is affecting also um Park View Canal.
one a lay person and just common sense and without any engineering background would tell you, okay, yeah, you know, you have a pump station right here and you have a elevated level of this type of bacteria in that water that is right
next to it. Yeah, clearly the problem must be coming from that pump station. We've been told that that is not the case. But, you know, I want I want us to have an independent
third-party, you know, engineering environmental consultant come in and verify this for us. I don't want us just to be, you know, to be sitting here and to be told, yes, we've checked it and no, it's not coming from there. I need,
you know, veracity with absolute no. No doubt that it's coming from there because that is something that we can fix. That is our property. That is our infrastructure. That's not private alfalls where Miami Day County and Durham have to go in. That's not Miami
Day County public schools and property that we don't control. This is our property. And if there is something wrong there, I want to know now. I don't want us to find out six months from now. I don't want us to find out a year from now. And
I know in the past we've studied this and we've inspected it and we've looked at the design and the sighting and we've looked at the operation. I want us to go back. I want us to dot the eyes and cross the tees and be given absolute
certainty that this is not coming from there. And if it is, well, let's raise the alarm and let's not say, well, why didn't we discover it before? No, we move forward then. We move forward and we fix it. And so our new public works director guide us on this because I want absolute
certainty. Okay. So we have already engaged Hazen Sawyer who's one of our continuing service consultants. They actually reviewed that pump station in 2018 and they came up with a list of things that would need to be updated in the
future. In 2023 we lined the wet well. The wet well is where the sewage sits and everything is pumped from that wet well and pumped through a forest mane. So we line that.
That's the most likely spot for a leak. There was no damage to the wet well. I want to be clear about that. The wet well was in very good condition. This was in an abundance of caution to make sure that we had an epoxy lining instead of a concrete wet well. So that was
done. Some of the controls are updated, things like that. So, we're engaging Hazentoyer to come back now. We are 7 years later and go through that entire system including the force mans that come from the pump station, the
gravity mains that come from the from the manholes to the uh pump station and give a comprehensive report on everything just to clear everybody's mind and make sure that there is nothing coming from that pump station. Who's doing this analysis?
Uh Hazen and Toyer are there one. Is this the same company that did the analysis in 2018? I did the initial analysis. Okay. I want an independent. I don't want the same person that did the first analysis. I want to have absolute total total independence
and I want us specifically to look at that wedwell system. And I want us, you know, just to make sure uh that that you this being located right next to to Park View Canal that this is not the source
of it. Yeah. And so I just don't want the independence of an independent environmental, you know, consultant. No. Someone that has not worked on this before because we don't want I don't want it to be someone fresh eyes. I don't want it to be someone that says, "Oh, well, I didn't catch it in 2018 or
2023 and now I'm going to look bad if I if I raise the alert." Now, complete new fresh eyes. And if there is an issue there, let's sound the alarm. Let's fix it. Let's not look for blame. Let's not point fingers. We just move forward from
there. But I need the absolute and the total certainty that this is not the source of the of the contamination. Understood. Thank you. Have we done uh any more water quality testing in this area?
Uh we do monthly testing um as a city, but we haven't done another intense uh test with uh M yet. Right now they're focusing on UV disinfection and we kicked that off last week. So that's the their focus at this time. Um we wanted to give a little bit more time for the
repairs and and more work to happen with the SCE beach and then and then I I think it is advisable to do another in-depth study with with um with the professor. How much please? Yes. How much time do you think um you will need for there to be enough
dissipation of the groundwater at the school to make it worthwhile to have Dr. Solo Gabrielle come in and do another intensive study? Three months, six months. Yes, it's it's always advisable to do this in the spring. Um a couple reasons that'll give us a nice amount of time.
Um two, we can get a scope ready with her. She has students available which really keeps the cost down for us as a city and it makes it a much more robust I think study. Um, so doing that over the summer with them is always a good time. It's rainy, so honestly the water quality is worse and we're seeing
impacts from from different areas. So it's the best time to do it in the spring. Yeah. Spring, summer. Okay. And so we're we're doing water quality testing, you said on a monthly basis. Yeah, just monthly. That's throughout the city in relationship to our, you know, our storm water program. It's just background sample.
Okay. But we have an emergency in this area. I consider it an an emergency. It's not a declared emergency, but I think it's an emergency. what we have going on in this area. I think uh Mr. Manager, you know, we we need to be doing weekly testing here to better understand what's going on, not just for
us, but also for the public. Uh I want there to be official data from the city telling us what is the bacteria level in this in this area. What do the monthly testings tell us? Well, they've actually shown over time since 2020, we've seen a lot of
improvement. um and uh the worst years were 2020, 2021, and it's gotten better since then. So, we take a look at the number of of um the the average, the median, the min and the max. We take a look at uh the number of times it would have exceeded the healthy beaches standards. So, things have been
improving since that time. What does the latest numbers tell us? Let's see. And again, this is not to point fingers. This is not to make people look back. We need transparency. We need certainty in order for us to be able to move forward
in the right path. Yeah. So, I don't have the latest one with me. Um I do have the average year to date at 268 um most probable number units and the median that was supposed to be at 70, right? Yes, that's
Well, those are the beach standards, not canal standards. And for the canal, what's the standard for this? We don't have standards for canals. So, that's that makes it a little tough, but we do utilize the FDO. We we look at that, you know, as we need to use beach standards because we know that people go into this water. So, I would imagine the beach standards
is what's safe for people to swim in. Well, there's it's interesting the the research that was done to establish that. It is about um it's a standard that about 3.6% 6% of people can get gastrointestinal disease or otherwise. It's sort of a safety
standard. Um that's how the 70 MPN was created. That's it's an acceptable, you know, level. Then the more bacteria you have in the waterway, the more likelihood of getting maybe something. So it's just a certain standard they use for beaches and it's established because there's a lot of flushing for beaches.
Okay. And so and so this 268 MPN, that's the median year to date. That's the average year to date. Okay. And what was the previous years? Um I need to know like what does that compare to? Sure. And year to date and also note we have we just started the rainy season so
we expect that to go up. Um 2024 was 614. 2023 we have 149. 2022 260. 2021 was 295 2020 was 3,199.
Okay. All right. Uh, I need these these numbers. I'd like to have these numbers included in our weekly operation clean water updates. Uh, and I want to make sure that we do more frequent testing than once a month. I think we really need to know, you
know, if you have a child that's sick at home, what do you do? You're constantly taking the temperature. This is our sick child and we need to be on top of the metrics to have clear certainty of what's happening. And I I Mr. Manager,
how long is it going to take us to retain an independent company to do a full and complete analysis of pump station 23? And let let me make it very clear. I would much rather them
determine that that is the source of the contamination than for them to tell me that it's not because at least then we know what is a clear source and we can take action to fix it and so and so that's what is determined I want to know it we need to know it own it move forward and fix it
so how much time will it take us to be able to retain a company I think we have uh companies on board that we can work with so I think that's something we can probably turn around and in in what a couple weeks at the the latest get a proposal come to an
agreement. We should be able to get a proposal very quickly and then once we see this scope we'll understand how long it'll take them to give us a report. So so I think we can have a we can have them on board within within two weeks or less hopefully get them on board up to
speed on what they need to do and then get them going. We will know how long it's going to take them to look at it once you're able to sit with them and explain what the scope of work is going to be so they can tell us. Do you need action from the city commission in order to do this? I don't think we need any action. You don't need an action. Okay. All
right. Uh and by when can I get an update at this committee our next or you guys can give us an update in our in our uh weekly weekly uh memo? Right. We we're we're actually have one that we'll be uh issuing tomorrow. will not have this update, but the one next
week will capture what we've discussed here today and what's been requested. Okay? And I think we need to have full transparency on the contamination level. I think we need to have weekly testing and we need to be publishing those test results on a weekly basis. I think I
think we know that there is a water quality issue there and we need to be on top of that and we need our official readings from the city. Is that possible? Well, if I may, Commissioner, we would need to look into our agreement with Miami Dade County. We piggyback on their
contract. It's a monthly sampling that they do for Biscane Bay. So, we have to just take a look at that, make sure we can add additional weeks and and we can go ahead and work on that. It would also need additional funding and it's paid for out of the storm water fund and we can look into that. Nick, if we need to
put this uh on the agenda for for for Wednesday because I think you know I don't want to wait till October to say let's start looking at you know um more frequent testing weekly testing. Can we get an item on the agenda for Wednesday?
Yeah, the administration could add it as an addendum. Uh David, can we get that? I'm sure we can come up with something to so that this happens whether it's the item or some other way of getting it done. Okay. All right. Um question.
Yes. M do you is there a sense because I know Surf Ryder does testing in a lot of the places that we're concerned about obviously when we have um testing dates that overlap with theirs because they do volunteer based testing every week. when we have testing from
the same places at the same time, do how do our numbers compare? Is that a reliable source for us to use as a benchmark or is it, you know, a little bit up and down? Yeah. Well, it's I mean, it's definitely citizen science, so it's based on
volunteers. And it um it's it's a little bit different. We have a very specific protocol we have to use and how we sample. And uh as a city we're sampling once a month and they're out there weekly. So it is a bit different. We could always coordinate with them. Um but the days the days are a bit different.
No, I know the days are different but like if they're if they're there the second Tuesday of every month and or second if they're there every Tuesday and we do sampling on the second Tuesday of every month, that one time that we overlap our sampling or maybe there's no
time that it overlaps. Um, it would the the numbers generated be approximately the same? Well, we could take a look at that. Their numbers are generally higher than ours. We've looked at that before and we're not sure if it's because of their sampling protocols. Um, but they're generally higher.
When when we go to weekly sampling, it would be very interesting to me to and to I think to our residents more importantly um to determine if you know if we should be using the Surf Rider um data as sort of a trend line metric. So directional as opposed to, you know, if
it's if it's overstated by a factor of 10, we should know that. If it's not, if it's analogous, we should know that, too. I mean, I I I know the protocols are different. Um, I know we do it on different days, but if we can find a way to sync it up and figure out what
what the story is. is I mean obviously the story is that we've got a problem that we're in the process of fixing but we also have people taking surf rider data and you know touting it from the rooftop saying oh my god you know the house is on fire um and if if that's
accurate and it it's it's it mesh meshes up with ours once we get into a an analogous sink then that's fine if if there is a differential you know by a factor of x I would like to know that too it doesn't make it bad I think it's very useful obviously we that was the
first that we turned to. I I remember designing a logo for a handful of volunteers um to start this clean water initiative in 2020 before the city prior prior director, not you, um kept trying to tell me, "No, no, no. It's it'll
clear out. It'll be fine. It's fine. We just need three consecutive days of testing." We're like, "Yeah, no, that's they're just like that's not a good thing." So, so I I I do appreciate what Surf Rider does and they are very important. I'm not trying to discredit them at all. I don't want that to be the
takeaway. I just want to know if if we've got something that is analogous and useful or it's just it's different by a factor of X. So, we'll know that and use it accordingly. And P clearly anything over 70 is our house on fire. That is that is a
concern. Uh but I get what you're saying. Yeah. I'm just saying, you know, if we've got people saying, you know, Surf Rider says it's eight gazillion and it's actually only 800. It's still over 70, but 8 gazillion is very different from 800. And clearly the situational awareness of where we're
at in the process of trying to remediate this environmental contamination. So trend lines useful. Great. You know, it's the first thing we had. We're going to continue. We love the organization. That's not a problem. I just want to know how analogous is it so that when people come back to us and say, "Well, you know, all the houses are in fire."
We're like, "No, no, we're still working on our Yes. Understood." All right. Um, okay. So, uh, I'm gonna open up the floor to members of David. One question. Uh, would you be open to, um, asking us formally to bring to
commission direction to conduct the weekly testing? Yes. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Let's uh, let's bring that to commission. I also I don't mind bringing to commission on Wednesday the direction for for for the independent third party because I want I I I it
needs to be very clear because if there is an issue this is not to hide if there is uh it is to ring the alarm sound the alarm let's if there is a problem let's accept the problem let's fix the problem and let's move forward
all right and Nick if if you'll have me I'll be a co-sponsor Sure Commissioner Suarez wants to join us, a co-sponsor, too. Yes. All right. All right. So, with that, members of the public wishing to speak on this item, um, please, uh, step
forward, Omar. Welcome. You have two minutes to speak. Omar Himenez, uh, founding president of the Parkview Island Sustainable Association and commission candidate in group one. Uh I think there's some really important points that are being addressed here today, especially the
weekly testing. Um the disparity between the results uh from the Surf Rider Foundation who tests weekly and the city. This past week alone, we saw 24,000 MPN uh from the Surf Rider results. And the the Surf Rider results
show that water quality has not been improving over the last couple of years. It's been getting worse. It's been getting worse by a factor of 80%, 90% versus what it was before. It was in the 70s. It was in the 60s. It's been getting progressively worse. So, I really need us to get to the bottom of
why there's such a big disparity between the city's results and the surf rider results. And the testing is really not that different. I've done them both. The other thing is that the sewer lines under the pump station number 23, I heard everything being discussed today about the wet wells being relined, but
have we relined the shorelines? How are we uh, you know, inspecting those shorelines to make sure that all of that volume and all of that pressure that is being brought in from Bay Harbor Island, Surfside, and all these other municipalities is is not, you know, damaging our water quality here in Miami
Beach. And the other thing that I really want to say is I'd like to commend the commission since our meeting in July where you took some serious action to advance the Biscane Beach Elementary Surining and we're as we heard today almost done with that and that is a huge
step forward for us on Park View Island. So very grateful for all of you. Some people, you know, have commented in the past that it's it's not only the shorelines. Um, but also some people have a theory that it might be the water tanks, the two big water tanks that are holding shore water instead of portable
water. So, we'd also like to debunk that officially if that's possible. As always, we'd like to continue working with you through operation clean water. We think it's been really great for the part canal. Thank you. Thank you, Omar. Uh, Larry Schaefer, you have your hand raised. Welcome. You have
two minutes to speak. Hello, this is Larry Schaefer, 23381st Street and uh this is the first time I'm going to announce this, but my organ new organization is people opposed to ocean pollution or poop. POP is planning protests against this government and the employees that we think are delaying and
making excuses, waiting for studies, and taking casual approach to this whole thing. poop is here because there's poop in the canal and there's poop in the ocean and you're going to hear from us until it is gone. I've been an advocate in this city for a long time and now because of this water
you've made me a sign carrying yelling activist. I've been damaged. I've have tonitis that's I think is permanent. I had hearing loss and blood coming from my ear from swimming in the polluted oceans. And I have a question. When is Miss Nullles going for a swim in the Park View Canal? Seriously, is that at
the end of Operation Clean Water? How many years has it been? Five years since we put that that that kayak launch. We haven't been able to use it. And I haven't heard anything about key performance indicators, which at least you're now talking about doing multiple
types of of tests. Surfer tests weekly. Now you're going to do it. But in the end, when we can use the kayak launch, that's actually when we have success. The count is going down. Excuse me. So related to uh uh operation clean water, bird poop, dog poop, homeless and
biscane elementary maybe that might make up 10%. This project is greenwashing. What's really happening is that you have tons of leaking pipes in the area. Florida administrative code chapter 62 sets out spacing for those pipes. Great that you're getting independent inspector inspector. Let's go to Florida
State Department of Enviral Protection. Let's go to the county during their inspectors here, too. And at 72nd Street, let's open up the horror that's underneath there and fix it. There's sewage lines, there's storm water, and there's an actually a defunct looking station in the center of the parking lot
that's full of of water that's that's I don't know, toxic. And um I don't know, more studies. Delay, delay, delay. What we need now is the age, condition, and location of the storm water system, the sewage system, and the tap system, which also has rusty water coming out of it.
So we need the public needs all this information and thank you Larry. Sharon you have your hand raised. You have two minutes to speak. Hello Sharon Weiss 23381st Street. Um I
just want to uh say I think it's useful for the weekly testing, the site comparisons. Those are all really useful um uh tactics they hear. But I would also like to suggest if this has not
already been done that we we don't just try to solve this problem all on our own. We should be if we haven't already done so. We should be reaching out for assistance financial and otherwise from the county, from the state, from Durm,
um, and from our neighbors whose sewage flows through our city. Um, you know, I don't I I don't know which of the neighboring municipalities have sewer pipes that join up with ours, but um, I'm sure that's something that that Miss Nolles and other people for the work for
the city know. We should be reaching out to them. This is we all we all use the water and we all should be uh working towards a solution and let's not try to take this all on ourselves. Thank you. Thank you Sharon. Seeing no other
members of the public wishing to speak on this item. Commissioner Bond you're recognized. Um I have a couple questions. So um have I've it's not the first time we're hearing about the water the storage tanks up in North Beach. Where where are
we on that? I'm sure somebody's looked at them. I haven't, but I'm sure somebody on on staff has. And can we just address that and clear that? So, I want to be clear, those are portable water tanks for a portable water booster station at that location. Those have nothing to do with sanitary
sewer. Okay. Um, we have never done um a aqua structure, aqua infrastructure study of North Beach and it was something that I proposed at the commission this year or at the end of last year and it was accepted and I
believe it's going to be funded um in our budget process. So presumably because it's not yet funded, we have not yet started anything yet. Like we haven't even talked to a vendor. I mean, because I think a lot of this will um a lot of these questions will be answered when we get to understanding
what the state of all of the pipes are all over the place and where they connect to other municipalities. I mean, I know a lot of us in North Beach are terrified of what happens when we start the 72nd Street complex because who knows what we'll find when we open that up. um when when the budget passes, so
October 1st, how long will it take to start that project through the chair? Um the the funding for this project is actually was part one of the item one of the uh items from the Doville uh developers agreement. So
that would provide the funding. Um I can't tell you as I said here exactly the time frame. I forget what the m the the milestones were and if you remember Tom um as to when that particular funding would become available but I know it's it's going to be relatively
soon the next few months and at that point we'd be able to begin the process of engaging a consultant to perform that task. But can't we already just start on the scope of work and just get somebody teed up and then we can cut the check once we have the funding? We can do that. We can we can um depending on the magnitude of the work,
I think that we can do that through one of our consultants because of the it's less it's less than $500,000 which is the the threshold for being able to do a study. Uh so we should be able to have a proposal have it ready to go for them to
understand the scope and as soon as we have the funding we can press go or even you know we pay for it and just reimburse ourselves. We we can do that also. So, I would like to do that. I would like to start the process now. We know the money is coming in. Like, let's get the scope going.
We've got the money in a bank account someplace. We can pay the bill and then reimburse ourselves when we get that from the developer. I will I'll discuss that with the CFO to better understand the the way to do it. There might be some funds within public works. I don't know that uh for this
particular task that can be upfronted and then repaid. So we can do you need anything for from us legislatively to make that happen? You need direction. I think if we can add to the other couple of items if we can add to um
explore how to pay upfront this study and then be reimbursed later on when start it immediately like start it immediately not waiting for next year. Yes. Um and then so we can put that as part of the item that we're taking once commissioner bond to the commission so we have a
comprehensive item. So, um, then once it once we push play, how long will that take? Because, you know, these conversations keep happening and there are people, you know, none of us really understand what the pipes look like because we've never looked at them. And so, the faster we can either say, "Yep,
we have this huge unknown issue or nope, thankfully, we thought this might be a problem, but it's fine or whatever comes up in between, but like we need to get to it." Yes. I I don't know that I have that answer. I know that I don't know that John that you've been able to look at that since you've been aboard.
So I'm I'm not familiar with the study. I I will be completely honest but Well, it's because it doesn't exist. That's so don't feel bad about it. So there has been a lot of pipelining going in. Part of that process is doing CCTV and cleaning these lines to
identify the deficiencies. So when they do line it, they know exactly what they're doing. So we know a lot about what the line a lot about the condition of the lines in the area and throughout the city because we have been lining these pipes for years.
So I just want to make sure everybody understands that the contributing area to pump station 23 has all been lined. So these are basically in like new condition with an epoxy fiberglass liner. So, we are confident that the
gravity sewer lines that are conveying sewage to pump station 23 are in good condition. So, I hope you're right and and that's great. And that's something we've been working on for the past four years uh that we started 5 million in funding for right. I remember when I that's what you
taught me about and we started uh funding that back in 202. No, and that's great. Like the best news would be we do the study, we're like, you know what, we're fine. Great. That's money well spent. But the other thing is, you know, we have a huge amount of development happening in town center
that is newer that because it hasn't been built yet. So even though that we've got pipes that are being lined, we don't we don't know how that's going to affect all the additional weight of the buildings, all that stuff. We've got I don't know 3,000 units coming on in North Bay Village. Like there we've got
all this other stuff that is different from where we were 5 years ago. So, the sooner we can get this done because not only will it tell us where we are now, but we also know what's coming on. Like 5 years ago, the 3,000 units at North Bay Village weren't even, no pun intended, a pipe dream. I mean, they
just weren't it just wasn't contemplated, right? So, now we've got all this other extenduating data to add into the study and figure out what the loads are going to be and and and how how to manage all that. So, the sooner we can get this going and the sooner we can either identify problems we didn't
anticipate or disabuse the the notions of these things that are ghosts out there. I mean, I I you know, as a resident of North Beach, I feel it, too. Like, oh my god, what when when is the next building going to put us over the tipping point, right? And so, let's let's lay these ghosts to rest or or um
or let's, you know, fix the problems that are coming up. Okay. And if I may to through the chair, I just I do want to clarify that the item that was presented in March and through all the studies is that you know the sanitary sewer system is not the primary source that it's coming from the storm water and we've
documented that again and again. So I just want to make sure that that's out there and the groundwater was studied. So wells were drilled all over North Beach. We had 81 acres and that work was done and that was presented. We've got some good, you know, graphics. So we have a website where we share that and
we're just you know and I respect that because that is the scientific study and I have great respect for that and we will always follow the science as we are doing with all the professional recommendations that you and the entire team has brought forward but I also want to give some
deference just to common sense that we have this huge pump station right next to this canal that has a wet well that that you know right next to where we're having this elevated level of of of bacteria. And so it only to to the lay
person and to the person that's not a scientist and just just goes by common sense, it just seems to make sense that that right there would be the culprit of it. And so and so this is my message. My
message is I want us to find the source. Even if the source is ours and is ours to fix, I want us to find it because it's only a matter of time that we can keep on trying to remedy here, remedy there before we have to go to the state
and ask them to look into this situation. And so that's that's please have that as a takeaway from today, the urgency and the seriousness that this body takes this issue. With that, anything, Commissioners?
No. All right. Okay. Do you want to continue this to a future date or Yes. additional? Yeah, it's a recurring item. Okay. Did we ever did we ever want to go back and look at the strains?
Um because if I remember correctly, it was just bird poop that's causing this, right? But there's birds everywhere in Miami Beach. I don't know why it would be any different in North Beach than it' be in South Beach, mid beach. Um, was there going to be a a restudy on
this for the storm water? Yeah. So, there was there was bird, there was dog, and there was human. Y and that was well documented on the streets and flowing into the storm drains. So, we can we can look into making that part of the study. I'm not asking any more stuff.
We're going to do it a study anyway next spring summer. So it is important to do that molecular source tracking to see what we learn. And when is the dredging going to happen? Well, the dredging at this point is is undecided. You know, we've done a lot of studies. There's flushing analysis that
have been done and it's not showing even with the dredging that we would get um a volume a pace of flow that would really help. Then we get funding for dredging. Yeah. It's not a funding issue. It's more of will it actually work? So whatever we do, we want it to work. But
why wouldn't we test it? Like like if if let's say we got the money for it, we know the drenching is good. Uh because like why wouldn't we go in anyways and clean it even even let's say if it just drops 10 mpns? Well, it's 10 mpn lower
than what it was before. So where are we with the dredging? So we've completed the studies for dredging and the dredging isn't really showing that we are going to see the type of water quality improvements we want to see. So, we've been in discussions with the manager's office on
some of the next steps for that. And how much is the dredging going to cost? We're estimating perhaps 2 million. Um, it would be it's pretty disruptive. You know, it is would be removing the sediment. You have to have somewhere to store it. Um, it's a it's a really big project to go through.
Well, contamination is disruptive. I mean, not doing it I mean, I know that doing it is disruptive. It's also more disruptive in my opinion to have this environmental contamination. And so I mean I but what study shows that it's it may not be
as effective as we all originally thought is where do you where do you get that from? So the because the canal is so angled the when you dig deeper it's just not going to give the flow. That's what the modeling is showing. So dredging can be
a tool. Um but we know from our studies that we have a lot of storm water that has bacteria in it that's going into the canal. So, we really need to also clean up that storm water and clean up what's coming from the streets. I mean, from what I gather, by the end of the year, we would have done like
five storm water system cleanings. Uh, from the start of Operation Clean Water, when we usually do it once a year, you know, during a short period of time, we would have done five. David, is there a way to cap off the storm drain at that
location for a period of time, maybe a week or two, take some analysis, and then divert that storm water to somewhere else? Or, you know, we also know when it rains and when it doesn't rain. And so how about we pick a a point
in time where we know for sure it didn't rain for a certain period of time and then look at the uh analysis at that point. I mean we can actually uh we can actually use some hard numbers to figure out is this a storm drain issue. So if it didn't rain for 2 weeks
straight and we test the levels and they're the same then we can you know we can be rest assured that it's probably not just storm water. Can we do that? I mean, it sounds it sounds reasonable to to try to do a controlled experiment like that. Yeah.
Um, I mean, I have to look at obviously the devil's in the details and it may not be as easy as plugging up one, but that's something I think is worthy of of looking at and we'll I think we can discuss it. Can we can we cap off the storm drain so it doesn't drain for a week in case it does rain and then divert that water? I
I don't know. That would be rather challenging. it is a large outfall and we would have to set up a bypass pump to take it somewhere else and then you know often during storms some of our storm systems are searchcharged so you're kind of
put it in the sewer I don't believe we'd have we'd have to get a permit for that through the county they're not going to allow additional you know rain water during a storm event coming into the sewer which is their highest demand time okay well I guess the easiest thing
would be to do is like hey it didn't not rain here for a week. Let's test after this period of time. Well, Commissioner, you're spot on. When it doesn't rain, the water quality is generally better. Do you have a graph and data? Yeah. Yeah. And that is countywide. That's in Broward County. That's everywhere. When it rains.
No, but I want to have Sorry, I'm not trying to be combative. I'm just saying for this specific location, I'd like to have a a study or um an analysis of when it doesn't rain and what versus when it actually does rain. And if there is a
high correlation between bacteria levels of when it rains, when it doesn't rain, then we obviously know it's going to be the storm water. And and then and that's where the weekly testing is handy because right now doing testing once a month, you can't narrow that down. But once we start weekly weekly testing, we can
show, okay, this week there was heavy rain, bacteria went up. This week there was no rain, bacteria went down. Obviously, this, you know, next couple months it rains almost every day. So, it's not, you know, we're not going to be able to test it. But once winter comes around, we're going to be able to
have a controlled experiment of when it rains and when it doesn't rain. Yeah. And you're you're again, you're spot on. The study that we did that we presented in March showed that it showed that in the dry periods that the bacteria levels are much better and when it rains the bacteria levels are much
worse and that led to the conclusion that storm water is the primary indicator of intera canal. Okay. So, if and I'm I'm sorry colleagues, I don't mean to beat a dead horse and and I know I just stepped in here, but if we know that this is storm water that's causing this and and the
data proves that, you know, what are what are we doing for specifically storm water? I mean, they're cleaning the streets more frequently. They're cleaning the storm water system more frequently. They're doing the UV lighting or they're testing they're about to test the UV
lighting. They just launched the last time I think we had this discussion. I proposed maybe having a container like a like catch basin and then it gets filtered out and um it's like the the the first two inches of water get put in there. It's almost like having an injection well
except above ground. Is there something that we can rent? I know I know a lot of companies not a lot of companies but you can actually rent some of these these um devices and and let's test that out for a month and see if that reduces it regardless of how
much it rains. Yeah. So, we actually have uh the permits issued for downstream defenders through public works and that's going to remove like the the all the the litter and I think there's other technologies out there to test to try to clean the storm water more. When the North Beach
Town Center project goes in, it's going to have a much higher level of uh standards for storm water. It's like a couple years away. It's a long time. So, the challenge that we have is that this is an old storm water system. It's 81 acres draining into this little canal. And it should never should have been designed that way
many years ago. But I think to your point, can we can we can we get um can we get a a device to do that and not have to wait for Town Center to be built? You're referring not to not not wait
till we have the downstream defenders begin construction. Those are they're going to be implemented in first quarter of next year, I believe, right? I think if I'm reading that correctly first quarter 26 those things will still will go into place and there's how many seven
seven and that that's take care of every outfall that that drains into the canal is that the intent I believe so okay so right so right they've been ordered and then they're supposed to go into
place as soon as they get received them we're estimating beginning of the year first quarter and it'll be at every outfall and we'll private outfalls. No, not private our our outfalls obviously. Great. Okay, Commissioner B and then we're Yeah, just I want to go back to the dredging for a second. So, I understand
that the dredging alone won't effectuate the change that we want to see those that's based on the computer modeling, but is there a way to um uh manufacture and increase current? Um, it sounds like we're always going to have this
recurring problem of storm water draining into the canal and polluting. It will get much much better with all the things that you're putting into place when we we do the infrastructure underneath town center for sure. But in the interim, can we do the dredging and
also install some kind of, you know, you don't want to jar the ecosystem too much, but just to speed up the flow of water by some small factor that would help clear things out. So maybe those things combined could make a difference that is
worth the doing. And I listen, I mean, and Omar, I'm sure you'd feel the same way. Um, you know, having lived on Park View Island, nobody's going to want to have the canal dredged. it's going to be gross and smelly and uncomfortable and noisy and you can't use your outdoor space inconvenience, but it's it's a means to an end. And so
I, you know, I don't want to dispense with it entirely, especially if there's a second piece of it that might get us to what we want. It'll be worth the effort. Um, and if that's some I I don't know if you've contemplated that and dismissed it or it's not been contemplated or you know what the deal
is, but I would like that to be something for consideration. Yeah, that is something we have looked into. It's just it would it would take machinery to do that which would need you know a lot of permits. You know there's another technology we're we're looking into as well that you know I just we really have to talk to you know
the manager's office to see when and how they're ready to share that. We are looking into a lot of other things. It's just a matter of for dredging or dredging for water quality. Um that would compal but she just said that dredging is not necessarily going to give the the flow
that we I heard. Thank you. But my question was dredging plus um something that creates more of a current. So it's a twopronged approach. Yeah. I think dredging dredging is still a necessity. Dredging. Okay. It might not yield the level of of you know results. I don't
think there's there's going to be there's not going to be one silver bullet here. I think everything is going to be a contributing factor. It's the reason why we we've been all these years relining the pipes in North Beach. is the reason why we went into Biscane
Beach Elementary and doing that over there. It's the reason why we want them looking at the private outfalls. It's the reason why we want to go in and look at the wet well and the sewer lines under pump station 23. It's the reason why we're cleaning out uh the storm water system much more frequently than
what we were before. And the reason why we're doing the UV, why are we doing everything else and going through this whole aggressive exercise to address the contamination and then leave out this other component that's budgeted for? It doesn't make sense to me. And it might
not will it solve everything altogether? No. But it might contribute even if just in the in the in the smallest bit any small bit is worth doing in my in in my humble in my humble opinion. just as an elected leader, I just don't feel
comfortable knowing that, you know, we should be dragging and we have the money for the dredging, but because it might it might not be the silver bullet, we're not going to do it. Is this the the money that we have, the 2 million, is it state funded or is it
appropriate for It's not It's from our Yeah, it's from our budget. All right, colleagues, uh, we need to wrap up this conversation. I just really need I'm sorry. Sorry, I don't mean to be disruptive, but we've been told that there was going to be dredging and that everything pointed
towards the dredging for years now and and we're advocating for the dredging saying that dredging does not uh work. I've I've looked at studies from New York Harbor, from University of Queensland. There's plenty of studies that point to dredging absolutely working. And if you just look at it from
a perspective of sediment is falling in the canal year after year after year. and this element is all polluted from the storm water runoff. How can we say that it's not going to work by removing all and so and so I think you see here a body that's advocating for for for the for the dredging which makes sense to me
together with all the other solutions. So and if I may that's why we recommended it initially. Yes, that it was our recommendation of staff. All right. So and it it does it does work in this case. We're just not having to see the the results. David, let's work on the items to bring to the next commission meeting. It's
going to be an add-on item. Uh, but I think these are urgent items that we need to take action on and and we take it very seriously related to the decision on dredging or not dredging. Believe me, the first thing we want to do is do anything that's going to help the case or our
cause. Um, we are also looking at some other technologies out there that that we, you know, hopefully might be also promising in addition to the dredging or instead of the dredging and I think we're going to be ready to to bring know discuss those when we have some more information. uh very quickly in the next
few weeks. Um but but we're just not ready for that because we don't have any the you know any of the right data or evidence or what have you. We don't want to jump the gun. So I think we we're asking is let just just give us just a little more time before we pull the plug on the dredging. We're trying to be u very
careful with what we're doing here. We we want to fix this quickly and do whatever we have to do. We're also trying to be fiscally responsible at the same time. I totally understand what you mean about spending any money to fix this is worth it, but we we we want to try to find the right balance.
And I and and I want us as a government to understand being fiscally responsible. Well, you know, if I were residents and my taxpayers property value is being affected because of the water contamination, I want everyone to be assured and you better
bet that I'm going to help them appeal their property taxes and that's going to affect us on the other end because at the end of the day, we represent the taxpayers. And so, and so we have to be fiscally responsible to the point that we're not also affecting the lives, the health, and the investments of our
residents. Understood. All right, with that we will continue this item at the next meeting. Colleagues, uh I have uh a Zoom at 5:00 pm. That and so and so I'm going to be adjourning today's meeting. Okay. All right. Thank you everyone for
participating.