By Rich Pollack
The cost of Delray Beach’s new water treatment plant could more than double from an estimate a few years ago — due largely to new federal EPA regulations — and that could result in another increase in customers’ water bills down the road.
The total project cost estimate for the plant could reach $280 million, compared to a previous estimate of about $120 million a few years ago, Utilities Director Hassan Hadjimiry and Chief Financial Officer Henry Dachowitz said in a memo to City Manager Terrence Moore.
That change is largely due to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s first-ever enforceable drinking water standard for PFAS, better known as harmful “forever chemicals” found in drinking water, according to Moore.
“Because of the new EPA requirements, the water treatment facility will be significantly larger,” he said.
The cost of the plant — which is scheduled to come online in late 2027 or early 2028 — and more details about its design will be discussed on March 11 when the City Commission hears a project update from staff and the city’s design/build consultant, engineering and design firm, CDM Smith.
The presentation will include discussion of a future water rate structure and funding options including possible state financing.
“Often times estimates are higher than what the final cost comes out to be,” Moore said, adding that the design/build structure of the project could lead to cost efficiencies and that some facets of the project may require competitive bidding.
In their memo, Hadjimiry and Dachowitz wrote that the city will need to borrow money — possibly with tax-exempt revenue bonds — for the project and that would mean residents could start seeing improved water quality in about three years. That would require the city to make annual debt service payments at least annually.
“Given these significant required payments, the water rates will need to be raised to ensure that the utility’s future revenues each year cover all of its future expenditures,” they wrote.
Those rate increases, Moore said, would be “gradual steps consistent with the marketplace.”
The city last raised water rates in 2022 for the first time in more than 15 years, with water bills increasing about 30% over a five-year period ending in 2027.
In the memo, Hadjimiry and Dachowitz said that the EPA ruling last April required major revisions in the plant.
“The original design of the plant had to be significantly modified to comply with the revised EPA standards for PFOA, PFOS and Gen-X, requiring substantial design modification and treatment capacity approach,” they wrote.
One major change, Moore said, was in the actual water treatment process.
In the original design, the plant would have used a combination of lime softening — currently being used in the 73-year-old facility — and nano filtration, a membrane-based process that uses pressure to remove dissolved substances from the drinking water.
Because of the EPA ruling, the plant will have to be a fully nano filtration operation and as a result will have to be “significantly” larger than originally planned.
Moore didn’t specify how much larger but did say that the city does have the space to accommodate the bigger facility.
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