Greg Veliz, executive director for the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about their projects.
The aqueduct had a pretty busy week.
Veliz explained, “We had a pretty unique break on the side of a bridge, the channel two bridge, and we had to de-water the pipe, and that means everything from the top of the bridge to the point of the break has to drain out. It’s a pretty substantial amount of water, and it put on quite a show. If you’re on the channel two bridge Tuesday night, you got quite a water show.”
Water had to be pumped up from Key West.
Veliz said, “That’s standard. When we have a break, regardless of where it’s at, everything south of the break becomes dependent on what we have stored in our tanks. Depending on the location, obviously you get more tanks if it’s farther north, but you also have increased service and we’re also still running our RO plant and if things were to get dire, we could crank it up to full capacity. But it didn’t necessitate any of that. But we did back pump to the point of the break.”
There is an RO plant in Stock Island, but also there will be one in Marathon.
Veliz said, “We’re excited about Marathon, and actually, we’re starting for the first phase of that is a pump station and a new tank, and we’ve just put out a contract for that. We’ve got a vendor, we’ve got a contractor, and we’re going to start construction. That site has come a long way from conception to where we’re at today in for government anyway, a really quick process.”
Are any of the cutbacks going to affect the aqueduct authority?
Veliz said, “Right now we’re very optimistic. We are spending money at a more robust bus pace than we ever have before. Water is very unique. It’s hard to say no to water. Everyone needs it, and we’ve got to have it so. I think people recognize that. Water quality is a big issue, not so much here, but in other parts of the country. So the fact that we actually are pumping very good water and highly rated water, and our only problems are infrastructure, we tend to find the doors open when we talk about water infrastructure and that’s good.”
Earlier in the week there was another break in the Upper Keys as well.
Veliz said, “We’re loading trucks. We’ve got a guy that’s been here 30 plus years, and he’s one of our go to people, and he runs a lot of breaks. He’s the guy standing on the side that pretty much is the general of the break when it happens. The other night he said, well, that’s my last one. Nope, not yet. You got one more today.”
Replacing the pipes of the mainline has been a major project.
Veliz said, “We are ahead of schedule, but you lay these schedules out to coincide with certain events, i.e. the school year. We’re up there working around the school, and we try to gage our work that would interfere with the school year. But unfortunately or fortunately, we are ahead of schedule. So now we are working out the logistics of maybe getting to the school sooner than we had anticipated, which is going to set up a whole new set of problems. At face value, you’re ahead of schedule. That’s great, but now that’s going to create new problems. So we’re dealing with those.”
Is the public fairly understanding at the work on the roadways?
Veliz said, “Yes and no. When they’re stuck in it, no. When you speak to them outside, once that they understand what’s going on, but if you drive up the keys, you see the pipe. It’s everywhere. It’s not like you don’t know what’s going on. We’ve got pipes stretched all over the Florida Keys, millions and millions of dollars of pipe, going in, ready to go in, replenishing it every day. Yesterday, I was asked, do you anticipate any future traffic impacts? Absolutely yes. I say that. I say that with the utmost certainty, we will impact traffic at times, but we will do our best to get out of there and get to a spot where we’re not impacting traffic.”
All of this is what is involved in bringing water to your spigot.
Veliz said, “There’s a lot of things involved. We were up in Florida City yesterday, and we were looking at some property that’s adjacent to the property we currently occupy. We’re growing, and growth takes money, it takes property, it takes location, some of which are in our possession, some are not. Some of them are out in that area and those protected areas and we have to do our part to make sure that we do everything not to disturb areas around us, but that we continue to grow responsibly. So it’s a delicate balance.”