State gives Miami-Dade and cities $22.7 million in grants for Biscayne Bay

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Gov. Ron DeSantis stood at Bill Baggs State Park in Key Biscayne earlier this month to announce that the state would give $22.7 million to support water quality improvements through the Biscayne Bay Grant program.

Of that, $14.5 million goes to Miami-Dade County to fight pollution and another $8 mil plus goes to municipalities — including Key Biscayne, Coral Gables, Miami Springs and North Miami — for their own water quality projects. Cutler Bay, for example, gets $700,000 for wetland restoration.

Projects funded through the Biscayne Bay Grant Program include septic to sewer conversions, stormwater management and wetland restoration in areas surrounding Biscayne Bay, Florida’s largest estuary with a direct connection to Florida’s Coral Reef.

The other five grants are:

• $2.3 million to the City of North Miami for septic to sewer conversions.
• $2 million to Coral Gables for Phase I Sanitary Sewer improvements.
• $2 million to the City of Miami Springs for stormwater infrastucture.
• $650,000 to the Village of Key Biscayne for stormwater infrastructure.
• $600,000 to Miami River Fund, Inc., a non-profit organization that includes preservationist and Miami River queen Sallye Jude, will work with local governments on stormwater and marine debris management.

Funding awarded this month brings the four-year total investment in Biscayne Bay water quality and protection to $52 million. In total, Florida has invested more than $3.3 billion over the past four years in protecting natural water resources and Everglades restoration projects, more than doubling the amount of funding from the previous four years before the Governor took office.

Additionally, last year the Governor signed House Bill 1177 to establish the Biscayne Bay Commission. The Commission brings state, federal and regional entities together to monitor the strategic plan for Biscayne Bay and create an associated financial plan to ensure its priorities are funded, using agencies representing the Commission.

“Governor DeSantis has again made it very clear that Biscayne Bay is a priority for his administration,” said Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins, chairwoman of the county’s Biscayne Bay Watershed Management Advisory Board and member of the state’s Biscayne Bay Commission. “Biscayne Bay is one of Florida’s most treasured resources and by prioritizing the Bay we ensure Florida’s future.

“These types of grants from the state help us as a county take the necessary steps forward to stay on track of our Reasonable Assurance Plan development that will further reduce nutrient pollution entering our Bay and help prevent future fish kills,” Cohen Higgins said in a statement.

  Danielle Cohen Higgins, environmental issues, Ron DeSantis