Boca Raton doesn’t want to wind up like Fort Lauderdale, with its sieve-like pipes and bubbling sewage. So Boca says it has begun analyzing and upgrading its sewer and water systems.
“We work hard to avoid that type of disaster,” Mayor Scott Singer said Tuesday during Boca’s first state of the city address.
State officials say Fort Lauderdale’s sewage spills are the worst on record in Florida, with the state notifying the city Tuesday that it would be fined $1.8 million over violations. The pipes spilled 211.6 million gallons of sewage with repeated breaks in recent months.
Singer said Boca recently began a 10-year, $200 million project to improve its roads, sewers, water mains and other utility systems. The upgrades rely on data collected from a program using technology and data analysis to see what needs upgrading, where and what specifically should take priority.
Construction and upgrades have already begun in the Chatham Hills and Country Club Village communities, with plans for upgrades in the Tunison Palms, Old Floresta, Lake Floresta Park, Boca Raton Square, Boca Villas, Boca Woods and Winfield Park communities.
The project includes upgrades to water, sewage, drainage and other equipment, and will draw from existing funds, according to Lauren Burack, capital improvements project manager for the city.
Chrissy Gibson, communications manager for Boca Raton, said the city will not be raising taxes or taking a bond to fund the projects, unless they find a major need that will require more money.
“As predictive technology improves, we may find, at some point, that it’s critical for us to make immediate improvements,” she said. “That might warrant consideration of a rate increase or bond, but for the near future, that’s not being discussed. Even if we had to consider a rate increase, our rates would still be lower than most cities.”
Jesse Saginor is an associate professor at Florida Atlantic University’s school of urban and regional planning. He says Boca Raton has a lot less to worry about with regards to sewer and water mains.
“Fort Lauderdale is a much older city and the oldest infrastructure is in that downtown area and, unfortunately, that’s also where they’re seeing the densest development,” he said.
“So you might tear down, let’s say, a two- or three-story building and put up a 15-story building in its place, so in terms of the additional stress or pressure on the existing infrastructure, it’s going to be that much greater.”
Having 50 people flushing their toilets or taking showers at the same time, for example, puts significantly more stress on the pipes and related equipment, he said.
Growth and development in Boca Raton, Saginor said, has also been slower and more horizontal, with more single family homes as opposed to the tall apartments and condominiums that constitute much of Fort Lauderdale’s skyline.
“I think that Boca is still relatively new, so there are still opportunities for the city to make wise investments in infrastructure — in other words, Fort Lauderdale is still playing catchup, to some extent, because to improve infrastructure is a lot more expensive when you’re talking about older downtowns,” he said.
“Boca has the opportunity to invest in infrastructure to ideally encourage the type of development they’d like to see in the future.”
Austen Erblat can be reached at aerblat@sunsentinel.com, 954-425-1955, or on Twitter @AustenErblat.
