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.
There have been a lot of infrastructure improvements this year with the Aqueduct Authority and they haven’t affected traffic too much.
Veliz said, “Oftentimes we wonder, is it because we worry about it being so bad that it’s now seeming not to be that bad, or is it really just not that bad? I haven’t gotten a lot of complaints, and we had anticipated a lot of problems with this when we started it.”
The desalination plant on Stock Island is getting to the finish line.
Veliz said, “We actually sat down this morning and talked about tents, catering and who’s going to be invited, and who we expect to come so, those are the real finishing touches and we want to be able to say that we’re making water when we bring everybody together. So it’s probably going to be after the first of the year, but at least we’re having those conversations and that’s huge.”
Another plant will be online eventually in Marathon as well.
Veliz said, “We’ve got full environmental clearance. We’ve taken out all the trees that we need to take out and all the underbrush. Now it’s just a matter of filling the site. It’s a really low site, so we’re going to have to put considerable amounts of fill, which we’ve already purchased a majority of, and we happen to have some ourselves, obviously, we do a lot of jobs, so we create a lot of fill. We’ve got it moving, and that’s exciting. I mean, that will be a multi year process. But I think, three or four years from now, it’ll be making 4 million gallons a day and that’s huge.”
Will these plants ultimately make us a little less reliant on the water coming from the mainland?
Veliz said, “We’re trying to keep the number right around 22 million gallons a day. We’ve been as high as 26 and we can easily run there if we had to. But right now we’re servicing everybody at about 22 million gallons average a day. Now you’re able to make 8 million gallons south of Marathon and four of that will be in Stock Island. So now we spread out the distribution points, and we’re covering almost half of what we’re pumping out. Once we rehab the old one in Stock Island, then we’ll be able to create six, and that’ll be then 10 million gallons. That’s almost half of our daily requirement. So that would be great.”
That’s a lot of pressure over time into those pipes.
Veliz said, “There’s a lot of factors that go into that. First of all, it’s that pressure, it’s the vibration against the coral rock that that it’s buried in, and then, just for good measure, every day, we dunk it twice in salt water, because tide comes up, tide goes down. There’s a lot of factors going into it.”
Could we see some funding from the state?
Veliz said, “I’ve given everybody here instructions, make sure it’s all spent, make sure it’s spent in the right places, so where I can go up there and say, we’re actually broke, which we’re not, but when it comes to new projects, I want to go up there in the most advantageous position, and look, we’re doing projects, we’re spending the money you’re giving us, and we just need more. That’s the only thing standing in front of us doing more projects and getting us more secure.”
The Aqueduct Authority also deals with wastewater.
Veliz said, “That creates a whole different set of problems. People get upset when you break a line and you leak water, but when you leak wastewater, people get really upset and with reason. So, making sure that that stays and fortunately, there’s a lot of resiliency dollars that are associated with wastewater. Like I said, no one wants to see that spewing out and making that secure is pretty easy to find funding for.”
What’s coming up in the future?
Veliz said, “Well, every time we go into the new year, whether it’s our employees, our customers, the residents of the Florida Keys, just stay safe. Have a great holiday, a great Christmas, however, you decide to celebrate these days and stay safe and let everybody get through this, and we can go into a great new year.”