The installation of big – and without question ugly – generators at two shallow-well injection pumps for stormwater management has some residents questioning the motive.
A council member – and a former one – accuse Village Manager Steve Williamson of trying to dissuade the public from an alternative to the Big Dig infrastructure plan. The generators have been the talk on social media channels dedicated to the island for the last week.
The alternative plan by GIT Consulting envisions a number of shallow injection wells to deal with heavy rainfall flooding rather than replacing the entire whole system and digging up Key Biscayne’s roads.
The generators are located halfway down Heather Lane and at the end of Ocean Lane Drive. Both are funded through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) through its Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.
Williamson and his public works director – Christopher Miranda – say these generators have been in the works for two years and have nothing to do with the GIT proposal by engineer Giorgio Tachiev. The timing, though, has drawn suspicions and accusations since the GIT concept was presented to Council on Jan. 8. A full plan is months away.
“Giorgio is going to propose probably eight underground, what we call shallow injection wells,” London told the Independent. “They all have electric pumps. So if he (Williamson) is going to say, well, ‘You know what? Now we need generator stations, each one.’ This is just one more way for management to try and kill another program.”
London said occurrences where the shallow injection wells would be without power due to an electrical outage during a severe flooding event is so rare it does not justify the generators. He voted against them in early 2024, he said.
“If you had a standby generator, and you’re doing heart surgery, that’s pretty important,” London said. “If you’re taking this chance on the storm sewer pump working, the worst thing you’re going to have is a little inconvenience.”
Former Council Member Luis de la Cruz also lambasted the administration for the generators at the Council meeting on Tuesday, saying grant or not grant, it’s still wasted taxpayer money. He called the generator on Ocean Lane “a horrendous structure that has absolutely no logical reason to be built.”
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He said he feared – like London – that the administration would put a generator at every shallow injection well for the GIT concept. “That’s absurd. Absurd. You can’t do that. Please don’t do that,” he said.
After the meeting, de la Cruz said he agreed with London that the administration is setting the precedent to say, “Well, we can do GIT, but we have to put a generator. Bullshit.”
Williamson asserted that FEMA requires the backup generator. Shallow injection wells slated for the Garden District, also funded by FEMA, will also require generators, he said.
The manager has proposed the Resilient Adaptation and Infrastructure Program – better known locally as the Big Dig – that would replace all stormwater pipes, build pump stations, a water treatment component and new outfalls. The price though for Zone 1 around the elementary school more than doubled last year and the Council is now entertaining the GIT concept in hopes of saving money.
Williamson did agree with a London proposal made at the Council meeting, that a risk assessment could be done to determine if a generator is needed for a GIT injection well.
Council Member Francisco Vazquez also wondered if the generators would increase the price of a shallow-injection well system.
“We’re just adding too many contingencies, too many costly contingencies to handle the situation that would technically in the context of a major storm event, would not be at the highest priority,” he said.
Williamson has had his way with this Council save for London. It has very much been the Council of yes and no one has been a bigger champion of Williamson than Mayor Joe Rasco. He did not appreciate de la Cruz’s comments, apparently, during public comments.
“We need people to not shoot from the hip all the time,” he said. “All of a sudden, everything is corruption and there’s problems. No, these are these things that have some institutional memory to public works directors ago.”
He then did a public service announcement, saying residents should reach out to the administration if they have questions. “They’re very open. They will take your phone call. All your Council people will take your phone calls so that you get answers and not speculate why the manager is in love with generators.”
Council Member Nancy Stoner suggested that the public needs to know what type of landscaping is planned for the generator site at Ocean Lane Drive.
“If we could publish some kind of rendering of what it might look like, it might calm people down,” Stoner said.
Miranda, though, said it would be faster to install the landscaping than to produce a rendering.
And the Council again approved a work order – this one for $308,000 – for engineering firm Black & Veatch to oversee the Big Dig project.
Again, London was the only no vote for the first work order to come in front of the Council since the GIT proposal was presented.
London said more than $2 million of taxpayer dollars have been allocated to the engineering firm. He has suggested that with that kind of money the Village should hire its own project manager.
“It’s throwing good money after bad for a system you’re not going to use,” he said.
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JOHN PACENTI is a correspondent of the Key Biscayne Independent. John has worked for The Associated Press, the Palm Beach Post, Daily Business Review, and WPTV-TV.