Title

Categorical Exclusion for the Miami-Dade County Water and Sewer Department (WASD) Wastewater Treatment Plant Electrical Distribution Building Upgrades Project

Document Number

N2020012

Document Type

CATEX

Project Description

The WIFIA Project consists of the design and construction of five (5) new electrical distribution buildings at three regional wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs): North District WWTP, Central District WWTP, and South District WWTP. The WWTPs are operated and managed by Miami-Dade County Water and Sewer Department (the County). The new electrical distribution buildings are part of the County¿s Ocean Outfall Legislation (OOL) Program and Capital Improvement Plan. Florida¿s OOL (as amended in 2013) requires wastewater utilities in southeast Florida (covering Miami-Dade, Broward,and Palm Beach Counties) that are currently disposing treated wastewater through ocean outfalls to reduce nutrient discharges by 2018, cease using the outfalls by 2025 (except for limited continued use to manage peak sewer flows), and reuse 60% of the wastewater flows by 2025. To comply with Florida¿s OOL, the County is implementing process improvements at each of the three existing wastewater treatment plants to meet projected 2035 flows and loads and to achieve ocean outfall discharge requirements. Concurrent to the expansion of the electrical capacity at each of the WWTPs, the County also plans to incorporate facility hardening requirements into the new buildings and decommission the existing electrical distribution buildings that have reached the end of their useful life. The electrical distribution building upgrades for each plant will meet the electrical demands of the existing plant as well accommodate additional electrical demands from the OOL Program improvements, as follows: North District WWTP: The WIFIA Project includes the design and construction of two new electrical distribution buildings (EDB2 and EDB3). Both buildings will be constructed to meet WASD¿s facility hardening requirements for extreme weather events. One of the proposed buildings (EDB2) will serve the additional process improvements implemented under the OOL, including filtration, disinfection, and injection. As part of the OOL Program, the plant will upgrade the effluent quality to High Level Disinfection in order to divert flows from the ocean outfall to the injection wells. The second proposed building (EDB3) will replace the plant¿s existing distribution building (EDB1). Central District WWTP: The WIFIA Project includes the design and construction of two new electrical distribution buildings (EDB2 and EDB3). Both buildings will be constructed to meet WASD¿s facility hardening requirements for extreme weather events and will replace the plant¿s existing distribution building (EDB1) as well as accommodate process improvements implemented under the OOL Program, including oxygenation train, clarification, filtration, disinfection, and injection. Like the North District WWTP, the plant will upgrade the effluent quality to High Level Disinfection in order to divert flows from the ocean outfall to the injection wells. South District WWTP: The WIFIA Project includes the design and construction of one new electrical distribution building (EDB3). The new building (EDB3) will replace the plant¿s existing distribution building (EDB1) as well as accommodate process improvements implemented under the OOL Program, including headworks, oxygenation trains, clarification, pumps, filtration, disinfection, and injection. The second electrical distribution building (EDB2) was constructed in 2013 to meet facility hardening requirements and to accommodate the additional plant capacity at the time and will operate alongside the new building (EDB3). The new building will also be constructed to meet WASD¿s facility hardening requirements for extreme weather events.

EPA Region/Headquarters Office

OW

State or Territory

FL

Point of Contact

Alaina McCurdy
202-564-6996
McCurdy.Alaina@epa.gov

Date of Issuance

2020-05-22 00:00:00.0

Website

https://www.epa.gov/wifia