FKAA Adopts Five Year Capital Improvement Plan

Florida Keys – June 9, 2016 – The Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority (FKAA) Board of Directors adopted their five-year Capital Improvement Plan on June 8, 2016. The Capital Plan strengthens and improves system reliability with cost-effective solutions.

While the Capital Improvement Plan has always included projects for reliable water and wastewater services, this year the Board augmented the CIP with projects that would minimize risk and potential outages during extreme events such as hurricanes. Critical projects include pipeline redundancy along critical channel crossings, developing design protocol and purchasing emergency materials to construct temporary pipeline crossings in the event of a bridge failure, and upgrading the FKAA’s aging and energy intensive Kermit H Lewin Reverse Osmosis (RO) Facility on Stock Island. Upgrades to the RO facility will double the existing production ability to 4 million gallons a day and allow the FKAA to provide water to Key West and the Lower Keys during an emergency event.

Key wastewater components include decommissioning of the outdated Navy and Key Haven wastewater treatment plants, further enhancing treatment and allowing for a significant reduction of nutrients from nearshore waters.

The plan requires no additional rate increases in fiscal year 2016-2017. Rate adjustments will be evaluated as project design moves forward.

At the board meeting FKAA Board Chairman J. Robert Dean stressed the importance of providing water during emergency events. “After reviewing the cost benefit analysis, I believe we are moving forward with a program that will provide an adaptable system with minimal impact to our customers,” stated Dean.

For more information please go to www.fkaa.com or contact Julie Cheon, Public Information Manager at [email protected] or (305) 295-2150.

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