Speaking

Though Florida faces aging infrastructure and ever-changing environmental conditions, there is funding available to assist municipalities in all their water initiative needs through the Capital Improvement Program. This bill created $50 Billion in funding targeted for water infrastructure projects while promoting greater opportunities to incorporate sustainable practices across many disciplines within the Water Industry. This new funding allows for more comprehensive planning related to Integrated Water Resource Management strategies to address multiple needs identified by the participating municipalities. Similarly, this funding promotes new career opportunities in the Water Industry and addresses the needs of disadvantaged communities.

This presentation will focus on the overall intent of this funding, which is to identify and preserve safe drinking water supplies, develop and enhance water quality throughout the watershed and increase the protection of federally recognized waterbodies and coastal estuaries. Other state and local funding programs will be discussed, highlighting sustainable practices and better resiliency to extreme weather events. Several project examples will further demonstrate the intent of the program and the resulting benefits that can be achieved through stakeholder engagement. The presentation will mention strategies that can minimize the potential for costly and time-consuming maintenance and operation activities through Integrated Water Resource Management partnerships for certain large-scale projects.