By Rich Pollack
Rates for Delray Beach water customers will increase by about $9 a month in October as city leaders wrestle with the challenges of building a new water plant under strict new federal regulations aimed at removing “forever” chemicals.
During a meeting last month, consultants and city leaders told commissioners the new water treatment plant — replacing a 73-year-old facility — will have a price tag of about $280 million and won’t be coming online until 2028.
Initially, the city had planned to keep the existing water treatment plant, which uses lime softening to treat water, and incorporate a membrane filtration process. That plan, which would have had two buildings side by side, would have cost about $120 million.
Last April, however, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revised standards for the chemicals PFOA, PFOS and Gen-X, which means Delray Beach will have to build a new plant twice the size of the current plant and eventually demolish the existing one.
“The reason this becomes a bigger plant is because of forever chemicals,” Utilities Director Hassan Hadjimiry said.
As a result of the new requirements and the switch to a total membrane filtration system, the city will also need to build two new deep-injection wells for the reject water created during the treatment process.
The city, which currently has 30 production wells drawing raw water from the aquifer, will also be adding six raw water wells, which Hadjimiry says will improve operational flexibility.
The deep-injection wells, consultants said, will come at a cost of about $33 million, which is incorporated into the total $280 million cost.
Construction of the new facility, commissioners were told, is planned to begin as early as October.
Hadjimiry said that in addition to improving the quality of the water Delray Beach customers receive, the new plant will increase the maximum amount of clean water that can be produced.
The current plant’s maximum, he said, is about 17 million gallons a day. With the new plant, the city will be able to produce 19 million to 20 million gallons a day.
To cover the cost of the plant, the city will issue bonds and raise water rates over 30 years.
In 2022, the city raised the water rates $3 a month for the typical customer using 6,000 gallons per month. The current rate for that customer will go up another $9.32 per month — to $78.43 — beginning with the new fiscal year Oct. 1. Monthly rates will continue to go up between $6.73 and $8.73 in each of the next five years after that, based on a consultant’s projections.
This year’s increases will help the city cover the cost of items that need to be purchased well in advance of when they will be needed, with the procurement process for $22 million worth of equipment already underway.
Hadjimiry and City Manager Terrence Moore are quick to point out that prior to 2022, Delray Beach water rates had not been raised for 15 years.
The projections could raise a typical bill by about $40 a month by the end of 2031, at which time the rate structure will again be evaluated.
At the end of the presentation, the City Commission gave the green light to move forward with a finance plan, which included issuing two 30-year bonds of $140 million each at a 4.75% interest rate.
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