By Steve Plunkett
On its way to faucets in Gulf Stream next fall: better tasting water delivered with higher water pressure and a lower cost.
That’s the promise of a 25-year agreement Gulf Stream made with its soon-to-be new water provider, Boynton Beach. Town commissioners approved the deal at a special meeting Oct. 28; Boynton Beach commissioners ratified it Nov. 19.
“Good job,” Gulf Stream Commissioner Joan Orthwein told Assistant Town Attorney Trey Nazzaro, who spent 18 months negotiating the agreement. “We’re going to save a lot of money.”
Delray Beach has been the town’s main supplier of drinking water since at least 1976, with Boynton Beach being the town’s backup supplier in case Delray Beach’s water system had a problem.
But Delray Beach is designing a new water plant for its residents only and told Gulf Stream in April that it will stop providing the town with drinking water in June 2025. Nazzaro said he will continue to work with Delray Beach to extend that arrangement until the Boynton Beach connection is finished.
Under the new deal, Boynton Beach will charge Gulf Stream $3.75 per 1,000 gallons of drinking water, or 25% more than what Boynton Beach residents pay. Delray Beach raised its rate for Gulf Stream in October to $4.49 from $3.81 per 1,000 gallons and plans to increase the rate to $5.28 per thousand gallons next October.
“Our connection with Boynton Beach may not be completed until the fall of 2025, so upon connection the town’s rates will drop from $5.28 to $3.75 per thousand gallons,” or 29%, Nazzaro said. “That’s a $5 million savings during the first 10 years of this 25-year agreement and will offset all costs to connect.”
Boynton Beach will not be able to raise Gulf Stream’s rate without doing so for other city customers, Nazzaro said.
Boynton Beach estimates the town will pay $150,000 for design costs and $1.5 million for construction of a water main from Seacrest Boulevard east along Gulfstream Boulevard to a connection just inside the entrance to Place Au Soleil. The town will also pay $330,000 for a 10-inch water meter.
The water main will be built in conjunction with a roadway improvement project on Gulfstream Boulevard, which separates Boynton Beach and Delray Beach. Both cities are sharing the cost of improving the road.
Gulf Stream will continue to operate a looped system, with two connections between Boynton Beach and the town. One will be at Little Club Road with the system that feeds St. Andrews and some of the properties along State Road A1A; the other will be the existing connection in front of Place Au Soleil that crosses under the Intracoastal Waterway and enters the barrier island on Golfview Road.
The agreement also has an option to renew for additional 10-year terms.
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