Subject:
Title
Adoption of the Save Our Indian River Lagoon Project Plan 2022 Update as recommended by the Save Our Indian River Lagoon Citizens Oversight Committee
End
Fiscal Impact:
The recommended plan update recognizes a $53 million increase in total revenues to be generated by the Save Our Indian River Lagoon Surtax over its 10-year life (increased from $489 million to $542 million) and a net increase of $6 million allocated to projects. The net changes in allocation, broken down by project type, are as follows:
• $4.2 million more for wastewater - septic to sewer and wastewater plant upgrades;
• $1.0 million more for public education and outreach (including 5 years of oyster gardening);
• $0.3 million more for stormwater treatments;
• $0.3 million more for vegetation harvesting;
• $0.3 million more for environmental dredging of muck;
• $47 million more for contingency, based on an inflation factor of 2.5% for Plan Years 0-3, 6.8% for Year 4, and 5.9% for years 5-10.
Dept/Office:
Natural Resources Management
Requested Action:
Recommendation
1) Adopt the Save Our Indian River Lagoon Project Plan 2022 Update, as recommended by the Save Our Indian River Lagoon Citizen Oversight Committee (Committee) on January 21, 2022;
2) authorize associated budget change requests;
3) approve continued signature authority to the Chair (or authorized representative, in accordance with the threshold limits provided for in Brevard County policies and administrative orders) to execute agreements, task orders, change orders, contract renewals, amendments, and other contract-related documents, subject to review and approval by the County Attorney, Risk Management and Purchasing, as appropriate, to provide cost share from the Save Our Indian River Lagoon Trust Fund for projects and programs approved in the Save Our Indian River Lagoon Project Plan;
4) approve continued authority for the Director of Natural Resources Management to execute up to two no-cost time extensions up to six months each;
5) grant permission to advertise formal solicitation of bids and proposals, and to award to the qualified bidder having the lowest, responsible and best response for tangible items, capital improvement projects, and/or equipment, when required and subject to available funding; and
6) authorize the County Manager, or designee, to submit grant applications for leveraging cost share for projects and programs approved in the Save Our Indian River Lagoon Project Plan.
End
Summary Explanation and Background:
Each year, in order to account for new information and opportunities, the Save Our Indian River Lagoon Citizen Oversight Committee is tasked with recommending an Update to the Save Our Indian River Lagoon Project Plan (S.O.I.R.L.P.P.). The Committee has held monthly public meetings throughout the year to keep informed, gather ideas from the community, review potential changes, and recommend an annual plan update to the County Commission. The Committee’s annually recommended S.O.I.R.L.P.P. Updates are posted on the Committee’s webpage for public access at least 15 days prior to being brought to the County Commission for consideration. The County Commission may adopt or modify the Committee’s recommended Plan Update.
An intergovernmental coordination meeting was held on July 27th, 2021 to review the process for submitting project requests to be considered for addition in the 2022 annual update. Project requests were due October 4th. Project submissions listed in the summary table (attached) were reviewed by the Committee during a November 19th public meeting. New projects that were recommended in November, as well as other changes based on new information gathered and analyzed throughout the year, were incorporated into the attached Draft Save Our Indian River Lagoon Project Plan 2022 Update, as recommended by the Committee on January 21st.
The draft 2022 Update (attached) includes 30 new projects, bringing the total number of funded projects during the 10-year plan to 337, plus 876 individual quick connections to sewer, 1625 septic upgrades and 20 miles of filter feeding living shorelines. The plan also includes performance updates and refinements on a number of project types. To help readers find all areas of the SOIRLPP that contain proposed updates or modifications, the attached Draft 2022 Update uses yellow highlighted text, table and figure captions to indicate additions and revisions.
Significant updates in the draft 2022 Update in addition to 30 new projects include:
• Broadening the existing oyster gardening program to a community collaborative supporting volunteers gardening oysters, clams, planting shorelines or restoring seagrasses;
• Increasing the cost share provided to individual homeowners connecting to sewer or upgrading their septic from $700 to $1200 per pound of nitrogen pollution prevented;
• Updating information on an independent analysis of ocean inflow and pilot study being conducted by Florida Institute of Technology under direct contract with the State of Florida;
• Updating the current status of seagrass losses and seagrass restoration efforts, including a Resilient Florida grant secured by the County to plant 1.5 acres of seagrass to test different planting methods and planting densities to find the most economical and effective approach for large-scale restoration in the Indian River Lagoon, and developing a seagrass restoration toolkit for all agencies and stakeholders to use, that will include map layers and a decision tree for selecting the most promising sites for planting, selecting the best design for those sites, and identifying performance measures that will improve knowledge of the abiotic factors and threshold limits for seagrass establishment and survival in the lagoon;
• Adding information on a 2022 effort to use remote sensing to rapidly identify and map the location, migration, duration, and dissipation of harmful algal blooms to identify critical pollution areas and inform prioritization of future pollution reduction efforts;
• Reporting on the costs, benefits, successes and lessons learned from completed projects and resulting, data-driven plan modifications; and
• Revising the revenue projection and construction inflation contingencies in response to economic fluctuations.
During fiscal year 20/21, tax collections were $53.8 million instead of the budgeted estimate of $47.8 million. This $6 million in unanticipated revenue was used to fund $6 million of new projects. Revenue growth and construction inflation during the fiscal year called for adjusting estimates of future revenues and construction price index assumptions. Using actual revenues collected in 2016 through September 2021, inflation of 4.0% for 2022 and 3% for revenue growth in 2023 through 2026, the estimate of 10-year collections was increased from $489 million to $542 million. This increase in revenue was allocated to the contingency fund to offset ongoing and construction inflation estimated as 2.5% for Plan Years 0-3, 6.8% for Year 4, and 5.9% for years 5-10. Revenue forecasting and construction inflation adjustments will continue to be considered as part of the annual Plan Update process.
Available funding is divided between projects that reduce the incoming load of new pollution, remove accumulations of old pollution, restore natural stabilization and filtration systems, or facilitate processes to respond to new information. The original distribution of funds between project types was guided by best available data in 2016 regarding major contributing sources of pollution to the Indian River Lagoon.
In the 2022 Update, $191 million (46%, up from 24% in the original plan) is directed to projects that improve the treatment of human waste through upgraded treatment of reclaimed water, connection of package treatment plants to central sewer, nutrient removal from treatment plant spray-fields and rapid infiltration basins, smoke testing to identify leaky sewer infrastructure coupled with funding to incentivize repairs, conversion of septic neighborhoods to sewer service, connection of septic homes to adjacent sewer lines, and upgrade of high-risk conventional septic to advanced septic systems. The 2022 Update allocates 26% for muck removal (down from 66% in the original plan) plus 11% for stripping nutrients from the dredge outflow water.
The recommended changes in the 2022 update are consistent with the prior year shifts in emphasis that reduced muck dredging and increased human wastewater related projects and stormwater treatment, as illustrated in the cost allocation pie charts (below).
Clerk to the Board Instructions:
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