Biscayne Bay Watershed Management Advisory Board - Mar 06, 2026

Nancy, do we have quorum? Do we have 10 people signed in? Yes. We are going to... We do. All right. Good morning, everyone. Let me call the roll. We are starting on time. On a Friday in Miami, that's saying something. Okay. Commissioner Chair Mickey Steinberg. Vice Chair Mayor Vince Lago. Commissioner Natalie Milian Orbis. Commissioner Alex Fernandez. Mayor Tim Mirbott. Present. Mayor Rachel Streitfeld. Dr. Jed Redwine. Sarah Hobson. Dr. John Stieglitz. Sam Acursio. Yannick Sederberg. Spencer Crowley. Here. Kevin Kniff. Dave Dobler. Julissa Kepner. Gerald McGinley. Jerry Menendez. Jim Murley. Here. And Roberto Torres. Here. Okay. We are good to go, Madam Chair. Thank you so much. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to our Biscayne Bay Watershed Management Advisory Board meeting March 6, 2026. We are starting punctually, so thank you, everybody, who could be here. I know we have a few members who are on their way, and I'm looking forward for them to join us soon. So, obviously, we're going to begin with reasonable opportunity to be heard, as we normally do. I know we don't have any cards, but does anybody here wish to speak? Okay. Seeing none, we're going to close reasonable opportunity at this time, and we're going to go into the approval of agenda. Do I have a motion to- Motion to approve? Okay. All in favor? Aye. Show that passed, and now I need a motion for the approval of minutes from December 5th. Motion to approve minutes. Do I have a second? All right. All in favor? Aye. All right. That's done. Show that done. And we're going to go right into our first item today, which will be the Durham organizational update, and Lauren Parra, our Chief Resilience Officer and Durham Director, official Durham Director, will be coming up and presenting. Through the Chair, thank you so much, Commissioner Steinberg. Thank you all for being here this morning. Good morning, everyone. As the Commissioner stated, my name is Lauren Parra. I am the Chief Resilience Officer and now the officially appointed Director of the Department of Environmental Resources Management. Thank you all for being here today. Since the last time that we spoke, a handful of things have changed. We've continued to progress on the administrative order that I had previously mentioned we've been working on. Essentially, we've convened with both the Mayor's Chief of Staff, Chris Hudwalker. Our Chief, Chief Roy Coley, and we've been working towards finalizing that AO, which would very clearly lay out the roles and responsibilities that either were transferred to Durham as an independent department or stayed with RER. As a reminder, this division was meant to support and strengthen what is an incredibly strong, a national model for local permitting that RER boasts, and also strengthen a lot of the environmental protections and the environmental work that is done at Durham. Historically, when Durham was an independent department, it really has been seen as one of the strongest local environmental agencies in the state of Florida. It's why we boast so many delegations from both the state and federal government. Because our Mayor, Daniella Levine-Cava, is nothing if not a collaborator, we've actually had several meetings with some of the environmental advocates that are most closely tied to this work. We've met with private industry, some of the developers that work with both RER and Durham, and our incredible county attorneys as well, because we want to make sure that this AO is as strong as it can be. So I'm happy to report that we are desperately close to what I believe is our final document, so please stay tuned for that. But internally, as far as the physical TO and some of the divisions, we've been working really closely with RER to essentially document how some of the processes and procedures are carrying on over the past couple of months. Some of this, truly, we needed to sort of give it some time to really understand how some of these processes were flowing out and what processes we either needed to streamline or better document to make sure that we're concretizing some of the collaboration that we know either RER would love to see from DERM or DERM would love to see from RER. So, since we last spoke, I can share that we worked very closely with Director Stacy Miller at the Department of Transportation and Public Works. DERM has since received back a section that was dedicated to NPDES permitting. Those staff members are now back with DERM, although the stormwater utility itself is within the Transportation and Public Works Department. DERM is holding those NPDES permits and that staff, so I'm happy to share that. Additionally, we worked really closely with Director Lourdes Gomez at RER. DERM is also welcoming back what we call the FOG program, the Fats, Oils and Grease program. That program is a direct outcome of the EPA consent decree that Miami-Dade County has been under for some time. And so a lot of that staff is dedicated to inspections, to enforcement, to compliance, which is really at the heart of what DERM has been tasked to do since this independent transition. As a reminder, no matter where these staff members are sitting, whether they're at the SPCC or they're at the Overtown Transit Village, it's still all the same staff. They are still committed to this work. I'd be remiss if I did not thank them for their patience and their grace and their flexibility throughout what has been a pretty complex transition over the past couple of months. But with that, I'm here to answer any questions from the board. Thank you. I'll open it up to questions from the board. Yes, Spencer. Morning, Lauren. Thank you. Good morning. I appreciate the update. It's good to hear from you and that things are going well. I would just, and I know that this is a focus, but just to reiterate, I think that the regulated community here in Miami-Dade County is, you know, and has been concerned about regulation that just seems to perpetuate a process and not result in any meaningful benefits. And so as you go through and sort of navigate through this process and evaluate your personnel and your code and things like that, I just think it's important to remember that the goal here should be protection, but in a reasonable way that makes sense and is predictable and, you know, results in things that help. You know, I, I, uh, my job is representing people who are trying to do, you know, marinas and, and development. And, and I can't tell you how many times we come across situations where, you know, where we, our clients or we are just delayed in a process for six, nine, 12 months and over things that mean nothing. And, and, and, and once they're resolved, they don't result in any kind of like environmental benefit. So, um, ultimately all that's, you know, helpful for, for progress and helpful for the economy. So I, I know that, you know that, but I just wanted to sort of reiterate that perspective because I think it's important. And by the way, the, the, if people who are in the regulated community feel like they're being treated, um, well and fairly, and they're going through a predictable process that makes sense, um, those people I think are much more willing to, uh, talk about the program and support the program and not, um, talk about it in negative terms, which results in, you know, massive sort of changes to the, to the program. So just wanted to make that, um, statement. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? I have a question as well. Yeah. Okay. Hi, Lauren. Good morning. Good morning, everybody. Can you explain what the fog program is? Um, and whether it's being amended to be a little bit more logical and practical as my colleague has pointed out, it is currently not through the chair. Yeah, of course. So the fog program is what we call the fats, oils, and grease program. And like I mentioned, it is a program that was created in light of the EPA consent decree that was placed on Miami-Dade County. So essentially fats, oils, and grease are substances that we don't want inside of our sewer system, and so we have an entire team dedicated to working with restaurants and small businesses across Miami-Dade County to ensure that those fogs, those fats, oils, and grease are being properly disposed of and don't wind up clogging all of the municipal or county sewer system. Um, we are currently working with one of our county commissioners to put together a municipal workshop to hear from a lot of the small businesses that have been directly impacted by, um, what have, you know, historically been pretty high fees. Um, and I think from the Durham perspective, we really believe that compliance, not fees are the goal. And so we're working really closely with the BCC to come up with some recommendations to improve the process. Um, while knowing that anything that we recommend needs to be approved by both DEP and the EPA, because this program isn't entirely within our purview at this moment in time. Can I ask a follow-up, Madam Chair? Is there a difference between how, like, let's say, a burger joint is regulated as opposed to a smoothie shop? Um, at this moment in time, the ordinance doesn't necessarily appreciate the difference between the volume and even the type of food that's managed at these properties, and so that's a lot of the feedback that we've gotten from small businesses. And so that's part of what we would like to recommend to the EPA, um, just to, to be able to be more thoughtful with the wide variety of businesses that we have here in Miami-Dade County. Thank you for that. And I'm actually a co-sponsor of that item, um, that we're working closely with the administration. They're going to bring a report back, I think, in 60 to 90 days to give us a starting point. We've sent it and directed the study. Yes, Dave. Yeah, hi. Um, I, I do think that, uh, in making the fog program easier for businesses, I've, there's a number in Miami Beach where it was, took an exception a long time, and it was because of grease traps. Um, and I understand and recognize their importance, but any construction company should be able to install the grease trap and, you know, give a very quick thumbs up. And so expediting that, I think, is really important, and that's a little to Spencer Crowley's comments on that. On the flip side, I am very concerned about, and I'm glad to hear that Stormwater is back in the purview of Durham. Is that what I heard you say? Through the Chair, what we have is the NPDES permitting staff, and so they do a lot of the coordination with all the city's municipalities that are co-permittees under the county's broader NPDES permit. But the utility itself is within the Department of Transportation and Public Works. I think that's, I think that's great. Water quality is, you know, stormwater is one of the most critical aspects to water, to Biscayne Bay restoration. I have a couple of questions. You mentioned that the development and the regulated industries are being provided copies and input on these, you know, on this administrative order. I didn't hear you mention the environmental community who is very concerned that we're losing a lot of our protections for wetlands, for protected species. And so will Durham have a seat at the table during the review process to identify anything that would then trigger, later on down the road, a violation? Because we, if you guys are going to be enforcing the rules, if somebody approves it, then there's no way for you guys to enforce a rule if there was just a stamp of approval on it. So first question. Through the Chair, I apologize, perhaps I spoke too quickly. We did in fact meet with the environmental community. We've met with a handful of the groups that are, I think, most closely tied to this work. It would be close to impossible to meet with all of them, but everyone here is familiar with our mayor and she's taken a lot of time to make sure that the environmental community is able to provide some input to the work that we're doing. So completely agreed and I wouldn't want to misrepresent the intentions of the mayor. To your second question, which is around ensuring that Durham has the ability to do review and provide expert technical opinion or commentary, two things. One, we've made sure that Durham is being treated in the same way that either Miami-Dade Fire or WASDE is treated through the permitting process. And that is essentially when a project comes in through a central RER. If there is a component of Chapter 24 that falls within the purview of Durham, there is always a fallback to ensure that there's concurrency. And so those processes and procedures are still very much in place. And so maintaining concurrency is probably the strongest vehicle for us to make sure that we're providing that additional review, excuse me, not additional, proper review. But I will also share that part of why this AO has taken a little bit longer than I think any of us would have liked is because of SB 180 and our hesitance to suggest that there are additional reviews. Because I think to Spencer's point, we're not looking to slow down a process and we certainly don't want to draw the ire of anyone by suggesting that we're duplicating or creating additional review. But at the same time trying to concretize those internal processes and procedures to ensure that permitting staff at RER knows that they can rely on the biological and technical expertise that resides largely at Durham. So here's my concern with what you just said is that anything that falls in Chapter 24 under the purview of Durham, then they'll ask you for input on it. But almost everything out of Chapter 24 was taken out of the purview of Durham. And so, you know, when we're talking about wetlands, when we're talking about dredging and filling, when we're talking about the manatee protection plan and protected species, all of that was taken out of Durham and put into RER. And so how do we ensure, because we've got SB 399 in Tallahassee, which is basically they're threatening to eviscerate our wetlands protections. We've made no progress on Dr. Joan Browder's wetlands protection bill. You have, they can, a big development can happen and they buy credits out of, you know, out of county. We really have no, I think that some of us in the environmental community feel like Durham is no longer going to be involved in these conversations as part of a, you know, just a review process. And so how do we ensure that the most critical things like our wetlands, dredging, filling, and protected species are at least, Durham has a seat at the table. Through the Chair, I appreciate the question and I just, I'm hoping that by saying this, it illuminates the discussion a little bit. Respectfully, the bulk of 24 still remains with Durham. It is only the sections that are very specific to permitting that stayed with RER. And we've actually gone through an internal exercise with both RER and our environmental advocates. A handful of them, of course, I can't speak in the aggregate. Going through that exercise of actually identifying what aspects of Chapter 24 did in fact stay with Durham. And I'm happy to report that was actually a really beneficial exercise for everyone that was involved. And so I hope that just by sharing that the majority of 24 really does still remain with Durham. Anything that is very specific to permitting were the only sections that were transferred entirely to RER. Director Parra, what I would suggest is maybe once this is, you know, this is new and it's not fully implemented yet, maybe in not the next meeting, but the meeting thereafter gives another six months to see how this is working and get an update. I appreciate that and I think that that's actually already, you know, part of the conversation about having a review after 12 months. I would actually love to see like a final draft of the administrative order and have an opportunity to provide feedback. I don't know what the development community and the regulated communities have seen. My last conversation was probably four months ago. And so, you know, that was with us just kind of like, ah. And so now, you know, I don't know what has transpired then and I agree with Spencer that we need to accelerate approvals. Things should not take a year to approve, but we cannot expedite at the expense of. So that's my general comment. Thank you. So, Director, I still think we can bring this back and we'll discuss and see the timeline of everything. And if you have a draft or once before, whenever you have something, feel, please, you know, do distribute it to the board so they have an opportunity to also have an, you know, an opportunity to look at that. Mayor, I know you wanted to say. Just want to kind of, am I on? Yeah, just want a real quick comment on, David said, you know, any contractor can install a grease trap. But quite honestly, that's been one of the major concerns in Cutler Bay. We're trying to recruit restaurants, but they're not finding it easy to go ahead and get the permitting and the approval of the grease traps very quickly. So perhaps, you know, Cutler Bay would love to go ahead and maybe if we had some educational material, we could provide the contractors or the business community or we would even host a workshop to help understand how to get through this permitting process quicker. And, you know, instead of taking, as you said, nine years to a month, it's hard for a restaurant to plan that far ahead and to sit there on their heels. So slowing the businesses down. So anything we can do. Yeah. Yeah. No, and I agree. And I think predictability is part of that. So, yes. And through the chair, thank you. I appreciate the comments from the mayor. This is all helpful feedback for us. I do think that part of DERM's strength is actually around the education and our ability to actually get out into the community. And so we're really excited to bring back this program to DERM. We are the managers of that consent decree. And so we've built a really strong relationship with the EPA over the last couple of years. I will also say that on the flip side of the business owners, we have all the municipal sewer systems and even WASD. They have actually been the direct beneficiaries of what have been very strong fog requirements, because when that fog reaches these municipal and county sewer systems, it's very expensive to treat. Oftentimes they're getting massive blockages in the system. And so we want to make sure that we're still working with our municipal system, with WASD, to make sure that they're not being burdened with some of these fogs. But again, totally heard that we can make this a little less burdensome for some of the smaller businesses that aren't necessarily, that maybe weren't necessarily the target of the initial ordinance. Great. Yes. Thank you, Lauren. When you look at the new structure and processes, we see a lot of like resilience type of projects initiative and like sealer rise adaptation projects that typically try to incorporate then like living shorelines or other green initiatives. So when you look at all this, can you look at how these can be streamlined a little better so we can process those quicker? Because right now it's a lot easier for us to process like go to the easy bottom and process like a seawall project that try to venture into anything with a green solution. And when we go out to communities and tell them it's going to take them two years longer to get a permit, for example, for a green initiative, and we're going to provide a lot more documentation and everything, it becomes a non-starter almost. So that can be considered true because I know that the county is looking at resilience in some departments in that, but we also want to make sure that all those parts of it can actually be carried out. Through the chair. Thank you so much. Totally, totally understood. I think from the Durham perspective, what we are working towards is making the policies as clear and just easy to follow as possible because those policies come from our end. And then essentially when a project is received through RER, through that central permitting, the RER staff and the technical experts there have clarity around the policies and the requirements that, you know, technical experts at Durham would require. Or would suggest, would enforce, would encourage for those projects. So totally heard. I think we can, that's something that we can continue to work with RER to make sure it's both clear on our end and is moving quickly on their end. Okay. Thank you. I know Dr. Thank you, Chair. I just would like to agree with what I've heard previously and add to it in that I think with the water quality challenges, often our best opportunity is an educational process. And it's important that the permitting process not be a substitute for an educational process because we want developers and, you know, business, businessmen and women who are very, have a clear understanding of how to make life better in Miami-Dade to go ahead and do it at a rapid pace. But we do need to be clear about what our goals and targets are and what the nature of the challenges are. Because, you know, with fats, oils, and grease in particular, this is just another example of water quality challenges where one out of a hundred people could be making, having a challenge, introducing a challenge to the system, and it can halt the functioning of the system itself. So, at FIU, we really enjoy the educational process. And we'd be very interested in supporting you and making sure that we have clear information that describes how, what our policies are, what the environmental outcomes that we're seeking are, and kind of what's the quick and efficient way to get there. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. James Marlin. Thanks, Madam Chair. Is it Chief or Director or Chief Director? I prefer Lauren. Ms. Perra, you've got a lot on your plate. I do. I'm thinking that our very important discussion you've just heard on grease traps, which really does take you down to the customer level. But under that umbrella, I think, and it's a question, but with assumption that you've also got the coordination with the Corps of Engineers and Water Management District, which I think is very important. I mean, are all the pieces, like beaches and working on Everglades, are they more or less now in Durham? Through the Chair, yes. Those all stayed with Durham. I will say that, and I say this lovingly, some of our stormwater staff, some of those engineers were doing double duty, working both on stormwater projects and leading on some of the beach renourishment projects, some of the Army Corps work. But I'm happy to share that Director Miller has been nothing but wonderful and gracious. We're sharing a lot of those resources until we can get some additional engineering staff on either side to make sure that not only are these staff cross-trained, right? We want to make sure that the stormwater utility staff knows what's happening on the water quality side and vice versa. So we don't have all of the staff we need today, but the projects are still with Durham, and we're getting incredible support from DTPW. And one follow-up question, Madam Chair. I think this interaction you're having with the Board is an example of something that's really important in what's happening is the communications. I think your ability to come directly talk to the interests of the Biscayne Bay and Broad, but also we all have our special titles. And I think the more you can do that and back it up in other ways, it's important. I would like to invite you to a future meeting in the Miami River Commission because I think many of the interests that impact the bay start in the tributaries. We have, for example, Wagner Creek, which is the most polluted water body of all the ones that Durham tests, and it's right in our health district. And it flows into Seabull Canal, which flows into the river, which flows into the bay. And so I think we have all the issues with manatees, with recreational boating, commercial boating, dealing with the Corps. So I think if you could at a future meeting, I think that would be, and Spencer's also a member of the Miami River Commission, so I'm speaking as the vice chair in that capacity, but extend the invitation. And I guess you're doing that in the meetings you've just described, but I think there's blending that with these public meetings adds a lot more to the understanding, because it's complex what you've been handed. To me, it's like extracting a wisdom to a thought of the bureaucracy and then trying to keep it going. So any way we can help, but I think this communication piece is really important. Thank you. Thank you. And I know you have one more comment, and then we'll move on to the next one. Yeah, one more question, Madam Chair. Thank you. You had suggested that in six months we kind of get an update on how all this is working out. We actually do have a use case. Can you explain to me DERM's involvement in the review process and in recommendations or suggestions on the Kelly tractor thing, which just passed? What is in the new scenario, what would DERM's involvement be? Sure. Through the chair. And I'll make this brief. I know that we're running a few minutes behind. Agreed that that's a recent case. The complication there is that these applications are longstanding. So that application came in, I think, about three years ago. And so the initial reviews were all under RER, which included DERM. So how do I say this? I don't want to be dismissive of your question, but it's hard for me to answer in terms of what happened at the beginning of the application. What I can share now is that we have been in essentially every discussion that has happened over the past, since the last BCC meeting, to try and identify the best case scenario for the environmental resources. Just to follow up, what would happen in this situation if that were coming through right now? If that application, if an application just like that came through right now, what would the process be in DERM's involvement in the review and recommendations? Sure, so I think, again, that vehicle of concurrency. And so in any application that has, for example, wetlands of regional significance, that's going to immediately invite DERM technical review when we're talking about these critical environmental resources. And those are spotted pretty early on within an application. Thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time this morning, and we will stay tuned. Thank you all so much. All right. Next, we have a presentation on coastal resilience in Biscayne Bay through native oyster restoration, which was something we discussed last time. And our own board member, Dr. John Stieglitz, will be presenting. Yes, do you want to go up down to the podium? Whatever is easier. Whatever is easier. Whatever is easier for you. Whatever you prefer. Yeah, you can stay in your seat. Oh, yes. You need an extra degree to figure out how to open that door. Yeah, I believe so. So can you all hear me? Yes. So thanks for the opportunity here to talk a little bit about some of the restoration work that we're doing at the University of Miami. Do you have, in terms of advancing the slides here, will they advance them? Nancy, is there a remote of sort? Or do you want me to do it from up that would be easier from up there? All right. Yeah. As he's making his way down, we will, I mean, this is an important item, discussing restoring our oyster beds while helping improve water quality. And I know there's a lot of interest from other board members as well. And actually, this was requested by board member Spencer Crowley. Thank you, Madam Chair. And just as an additional piece of context, and actually this morning I saw an aerial drone update on a project that FIND is working on. FIND is an agency that I happen to represent also in Lake Worth Lagoon called Bonefish Cove. And that project is a huge environmental restoration project that's incorporating the filling of dredge holes and also planting huge amounts of oyster reefs in order to help improve water quality. Because they filter out various particulates in the water column. So this is something that agencies in other parts of the state have had a lot of success with. And I really thought it was important to have the board hear from an expert, our board member. So that's why I asked for it. Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Stiglitz, you're up. Thank you. And thanks for the opportunity here to speak. Apologies for the delay there. So to discuss some of the sort of the restoration work that we're doing at the University of Miami, specifically related to some of the oysters, as Spencer mentioned. So let's see here. There we go. So we know we're all here in terms of we understand the challenges. That's why we're here as part of this board. A lot of environmental stressors facing the bay. We talk about them at every meeting here, right? And so in terms of understanding these, whether it's sea level rise, degradation of our coastal waters, right? We've seen, we've heard about the fish kills over the years. Loss of ecosystem services. I think that's something that I'd like to highlight here in this meeting. A lot of times we're talking about loss of various species groups, right? But when we sort of take a step back and we look at what are those ecosystem services that those organisms are providing, I think in many cases that gets lost to the public, right? And lost, you know, amongst even our members here when we talk about restoring certain areas. It's sort of asking that question of what are we actually trying to restore here? We're trying to restore those ecosystem services, that essential habitat that historically has provided a clean and healthy bay for, you know, for everybody. And so coral reef impacts, we know the history there, and many more, right? I mean, we could have a whole meeting discussing the impacts. There's a great initiative, right, the Biscayne Bay, the health summit that occurs. And so that's exciting. That's coming up. But when we look at South Florida, Biscayne Bay can really be a model test ground, right, for exploring some of these strategies. I think we're sort of at the leading edge here in South Florida. We've been identified as one of the most at-risk areas due to climate change. So everything that other communities around the nation, particularly in the warmer climates, are experiencing, we're seeing them first here in South Florida in many ways. And so we're at that leading edge. And so a lot of the techniques, technologies, strategies that are utilized here in South Florida are taken up in other areas because they say, wow, we saw that work down in Biscayne Bay or in Miami, and so how can we implement that in their own areas? So I think we have a really unique opportunity here. And so it's sort of viewing it as an ideal test bed where we can explore some of these. And some of you all here today represent communities where you are implementing some of these nature-based solutions, that sort of thing. And it's very exciting to see. And those, again, those are being taken up by other areas. And so, really, at the end of the day, it's about looking at ecosystem approach to restoration. Again, not just focusing on sort of singular species or singular habitats. It's sort of taking a step back and looking at it from an ecosystem approach, taking that angle. And there's been a lot of excellent work done, right? I mean, we're going to have a presentation, I think, today looking at some of this work. Biscayne Bay coastal wetlands, a lot of great progress there. We're going to talk about SERP overall. I'm not going to get into that because I know we're going to hear about that more later in the meeting. But, again, addressing those areas that you see in kind of the red oval on the west side of the bay, right, in terms of trying to restore a lot of these coastal habitats and that sort of thing. And then also out on the opposite side, right, the reef line. So we're all very familiar with our reef impacts out there, coral bleaching, all the impacts that are occurring out there. There's a lot of work. I think at every university in Florida, I would argue, there's an extensive, you know, coral restoration program. And it's fantastic to see, right? But I think one area that's sort of been forgotten is this gap, right, where the question mark is. What's happening between there, right, from the west side of the bay out to the reef line? You go out there on any given day and, you know, we've got the scientific reports in terms of water quality and that sort of thing. And, yes, certain areas, you know, they are getting better. But we still see water quality that's not at a level that I think any of us would be happy with. And so any organism that you're trying to restore out there would do a lot better if you had clean water. And so I think that's something that we're trying to address through oyster restoration. And so just to provide a little historical context, oysters in Biscayne Bay, they were abundant, right, in the late 1800s. There was actually a commercial fishery for oysters in northern Biscayne Bay. And so, obviously, we're not going to have a history lesson here in terms of why that's changed. But with development overall and changes in water management and that sort of thing, we've seen an overall degradation of the Biscayne Bay ecosystem. Representatives from Miami Waterkeeper are here. They do a fantastic job of highlighting this work. You know, but a number of scientific papers have come out on this. It's an ongoing issue, right? And so, yes, certain areas are doing better. It's very encouraging to see that. But overall, we've seen degradation. And so when we're looking at the potential for oysters in Biscayne Bay, it's not something that has really been on the forefront when we think of restoration strategies. There's a lot of work out there going on with regards to whether it's seagrass or sponges or coral restoration. But I think taking that ecosystem approach and saying, you know what, I think oysters have a potential role to play here is key. And so there are some remnant populations of eastern oysters in parts of Biscayne Bay. We've identified those. And those are actually documented by FWC as well. And so there's some small remnant populations out there. And we have one of, I believe it's the only broodstock population of our native eastern oysters at the University of Miami. And through utilization of restorative aquaculture techniques and technologies, we aim to sort of accelerate this restoration using nature-based solutions. Okay? So as opposed to relying on, you know, a lot of these areas, it's the same strategy or very, not the same, but very similar to what's being done with other groups, whether it's sponges or corals, that sort of thing. But trying to accelerate this process so that then nature can take over and really recover, right, and restore those habitats. So at the University of Miami, we have a fantastic marine aquaculture facility on Virginia Key. I extend an invitation now to you all. If you're ever in the area, let me know. Happy to give you a tour. We focus on sustainable seafood research and development, but also restorative aquaculture techniques. So historically centered around marine finfish, macroalgae, also working with bivalves, the oysters. The bottom of the slide looks like it was cut off there. But a number of different marine species that the commonality amongst all of them is that they're high value. And when we say high value, that could be from a food perspective. It could also be from an ecosystem services perspective like we think of in terms of oysters. And so we can think of, you know, for those of you unfamiliar with sort of the role that oysters play in terms of the environment and their services. There's the classic example like you see there. You put oysters in a tank. I mean, we do this with school groups, right? And we let them witness it with their own two eyes to see the power that these organisms have in terms of cleaning up the water. And so there's a number of different environmental benefits associated with oyster restoration. And what we're aiming to do is to take an interdisciplinary approach to restoration where, you know, we engage with community stakeholders. That's what we're doing right here, right? All of your stakeholders combine that scientific expertise addressing restorative aquaculture, ecological genomics, habitat restoration specialists, and then the outreach component. We heard just in the previous discussion about the importance of educating the public. Just like at FIU at the University of Miami, we take education and outreach very seriously, and we enjoy that process. And we think that there's, you know, there's a big role to play in terms of restoration of our Biscayne Bay habitats. And so right now we're working on a number of different objectives and aims with this project in terms of oyster restoration. Oysters are not unique by any means to Biscayne Bay or Southeast Florida. We're actually doing a, but there's not a lot of information when you start digging into it in terms of the connectivity amongst the different populations or different areas where oysters are historically found. So some of you may be familiar with what occurred up in Apalachicola. There was a moratorium. Oysters are, you know, globally we've lost anywhere from about 85 to 90% of our oyster habitats globally, which is incredible, right? And so there's an area up in Apalachicola that historically was Florida's largest area for production of oysters commercially, and that area was decimated. We're not going to get into why that was, but they finally closed it down, right? They closed it down. They said there's no more commercial harvest of oysters in that area. They just recently reopened that for a limited commercial take, which is great to see, right? By shutting it down, they allowed time for it to recover, and now it's back open. But I think, you know, looking at this connectivity amongst us is going to provide some great insight in terms of identifying are these oysters in Biscayne Bay? Have they sort of adapted to our local conditions, which we think that they probably have? Or are they, you know, carbon copies of what we see in other areas? And so without getting too much into the science here, right, we're looking at that in terms of the population connectivity there. And so at the end of the day, it's all about blue economy, using nature-based restoration solutions. Oysters can play a key role in this, and so there are a number of different opportunities for implementing these restorative aquaculture techniques, and we're excited about the opportunities with oysters. And I think putting it when we talk about outreach and education, it's really about connecting the dots there for the public, right? So we can sit here all day and talk about, oh, the value of, you know, restoring coral reefs or sponges or seagrass. And oysters we don't hear about a lot down here. You hear about it more when you're up in, you know, Chesapeake Bay or maybe over in the Gulf, that sort of thing. But they're here, they're in Biscayne Bay, and they play a key role in our habitat. And I think it's something that would be good to sort of have on the radar when we think about how can we help out Biscayne Bay. And I know we have some of the leading experts in the engineering field here, and we talk about nature-based solutions and these sorts of things of how can we incorporate this in a thoughtful way to help out Biscayne Bay, right? And I think, you know, you see here Noah put out a great piece here in terms of looking at the value of oyster habitat. I think you could do a similar exercise here in Biscayne Bay specifically. And so I think there's a real opportunity there, and I appreciate the time to discuss it with you. So thank you. Thank you so much for that great presentation. Yes, Spencer. Thank you. Thank you, John. What do you think about, well, first of all, does the Coconut Grove area have like the right salinity to put oysters there? And what do you think we could do in terms of an outreach initiative to the marinas and the yacht clubs there to try to incorporate something like you showed on the last slide, where you have oyster, you know, there's different types like oyster bags or hanging oyster gardens under some of those docks or in those areas to help, you know, with the water quality. I mean, I keep my boat in the water in Coconut Grove, and it's very, I mean, the water quality on the, you know, close to land is not great. And I think this type of thing could really help that area. So just wondering your thoughts, and I'm happy to help if that's a possibility. I appreciate that. I think there's a lot of opportunity there. I think it's something that, you know, there are a lot of, you can look up anywhere online and talk about oyster gardening projects. I think there was an initiative actually around Biscayne Bay, Coral Gables area years ago. There was an individual who sort of started engaging in some of that. It's, it looks based, maybe some of you all know better than I do, but it's sort of tapered off. And, but there's a lot of potential there in terms of oyster gardening. And that's the idea of where engaging stakeholders, engaging private, you know, landowners or dock facilities, marinas, as to, hey, let's, if we hang these oysters off here, what, you know, let's educate the public about that. Let's see the potential there. You'd be amazed at the many areas where you can find oysters, right? A lot of, I was actually told by, we're not going to name names, but I've been, been told by experts at different agencies that they simply don't exist in Biscayne Bay and that they're, they're not there anymore. And so as an avid fisherman and diver in Biscayne Bay enjoying the recreational opportunities out there, I know they're there. And so it's great to sort of bring this to the forefront and build upon that. So, yes, in terms of the salinity profile, that's something that is, organisms can adapt. And that's what we're seeing is that you can find these in areas where historically they may be marked on a map as, nope, not suitable. They're, they're not there. So, yes, Dr. Redwyn. Thank you, John. Let me go ahead. Oh, yes. I don't care. The proper procedure. Thank you for your presentation, John. And, and, you know, often when we're talking about nature-based solutions as a environmental manager over the years, what I've had to differentiate between sort of primary treatment, secondary treatment, and tertiary treatment. Often the, the most natural filters or most natural systems that improve water quality are in tertiary treatment. After, you know, when we're close to a, to an environmental reference, the nature-based filters are very effective. Sometimes whenever we have very poor water quality or a lot of sediment, even, you know, some of the nature-based systems may suffer and not function very well. That may be part of the reason why, you know, we've, we've seen changes in the relative abundance of oysters in different spots in Biscayne Bay. And so I'm interested, my question has two components, right? First is direct. What do you think is the best way to use oysters to improve water quality? Is it as, you know, near a source or is it in an ambient condition that's close to environmental, natural background conditions? Right. That's a great question. I think in Biscayne Bay specifically, which we're, that's why we're here, it's hard to sort of pinpoint the exact source. We've got a lot of nutrients, a lot of, you know, compounds entering the Bay from, it's a very porous environment, right? In terms of what goes on on the land and what we see showing up in the Bay. So I think in that context, it's about getting them out there, having more oyster habitat, right? You're not going to stick them at the outflow of a specific pipe necessarily, right? In terms of our classic example of point source. But I think finding them in areas where all over, right? In terms of let's see where they take off, right? In terms of that, these environments. And so I don't think from a restoration perspective, there's a lot of, when you look at potential restoration sites, Biscayne Bay is a complicated environment, right? In terms of the many, we've got the national park, the aquatic preserve, got a lot of different considerations, different management units, different agencies involved. And so simply navigating that is proving to be an interesting endeavor in itself. But the, yeah, I think we need to, you may find an area, you say, oh, that looks like the perfect spot to do this. But there may be a reason why we can't do that there. We can't do that there. So I think it's about identifying the sites that are the best within the context of what we can do from a restoration strategy in terms of the permitting and that sort of thing. Yeah. Thank you very much, because you intuited the second part of my question, which was, do you have some type of gradient based approach strategy that you're going to use to where you install oysters as a gradient from a natural or chronically occurring source of contaminants? And so it sounds like you're interested in that. Yes. I mean, to me, to advance the theme of learning in this morning's meeting, I think it's always a good idea to do that is, you know, FIU, we'd be very interested in working with you and Spencer to look at the broad context and identify opportunities. One thing we have at FIU, which is very helpful, is a lot of people. Yes. You know, we've got 40,000 students and, you know, we have over 100 professors in the IOE department. You know, we've probably got 20 people out on the bay in any given day. We'd really be interested in convening an environment where we discuss comprehensively where our opportunities and challenges are. And we look for the locations where we can optimize the effect of nature based solutions. Absolutely. I appreciate that. Thank you. Mayor Straitfield. Yes. Through the chair. Yes. So that back and forth about comprehensive analysis jointly on opportunities I think is an extraordinarily productive thing to come out of this meeting. Thank you for the presentation, Spencer. Thanks for bringing it. I have a comment and then a question. The comment is what we all know to be very, very plainly obvious. I'm just going to put it on the record that all of the attempts at implementing oysters to restore the bay will most likely fail if we don't continue aggressively on our enforcement track with stormwater and addressing all of these wastewater issues and bringing our infrastructure into the 21st century, so on and so forth. My question is, does there exist a best practices guide for local governments to incentivizing living seawalls or living shorelines because over the course of the last six years in public service have been introduced to the power of oysters, the power of alternatives to riprap, what biophilic concrete can do. There are all of these phenomenal tools that when combined and applied across all of our coastal properties could, I think, really make a difference, particularly in the northern part of the bay. Right? Miles and miles of seawalls up and down Little Arch Creek and through Keystone and all of this. It would be really great for the coastal mayors, for Miami-Dade County to have a clear best practices guide to incentivizing this kind of seawall. I mean, I'm talking, I'm trying to push my clients to do the right thing. Right? And we're incentivizing our residents to do the right thing. But, and this is really for everyone. I apologize, Madam Chair. But creating, I think, a best practices guide so that it could be implemented here at the county and across local governments would be really, really useful to incorporate things like oysters and all of these other features. Absolutely. Well, through the chair. I appreciate those comments. And I think that you're right. That's a common, to address your first point, right, in terms of, oh, we've heard about this and why is it not taking off and that sort of thing. I think there are a lot of challenges with any type of restoration initiative. When we look at, you know, we're not going to do a case example of the different, whether you're trying to restore corals or seagrass or sponges. There are different considerations that go into all of those. I think with regards to oyster restoration specifically, there are a lot of different ways that that could look, right, in terms of some of the strategies that have been attempted in the past. They may not have been the right strategy. And I put that, you know, that slide up there in terms of, you know, this is one tool in the toolbox. So I think if we take a step back and look at ecosystem restoration as a whole, as that's our general goal here, we've got a lot of the resource managers, the scientists, all that, have a lot of different tools in the toolbox. This seems to be a tool that has been discarded or left out of the toolbox. And so just to bring it to the attention of, you know, this can be a powerful strategy in terms of including it. Is it going to be the right fit for every different area? Maybe not, right? Maybe not, right? But, and a lot of the past attempts, I mean, specifically in Biscayne Bay, there are some stipulations right now with regards to some of the permitting where, okay, let's say, you know, the law says, you know, something on the bottom can only be six inches off the bottom. Well, if you're in a heavy mud or very silty environment, oysters are going to get smothered in a short amount of time. And this was something that also existed. There were similar stipulations up in Chesapeake Bay. And there's a paper that just came out recently identifying that, you know what happened? They finally broke through that roadblock and they said, we're going to put a lot of substrate out there, hard bottom substrate, oyster shell material, and we're going to raise it up a foot, right? Nothing crazy. You raise it up a foot and now there are oysters everywhere there. And so simply by breaking through sort of some long-standing bottlenecks when we think about restoration and restoration strategies, they identified that, hey, we can learn from our past mistakes and then utilize that information to advance restoration science further, right? And so perhaps, I mean, collectively, there are a lot of people in the room here who can help make those decisions, right? If we look at strategies that have failed in the past with regards to oyster restoration, maybe we need to think outside the box a little bit and say, okay, is it okay instead of six inches to have it come up a foot off the bottom? If that's going to be the difference between success versus failure, you know, maybe we need to rethink that. And so there's a real opportunity there. Yeah. And the best practices, the last point that you made. Right. And let me just follow up on the best practices point because that's really the substance that I want to hone in on. Durham was developing a living shore, a best practices living shoreline guide, and I don't recall that I ever saw a version of it, final or draft. And that's, obviously, the question is for Durham, so. Yeah. All right. We can address that. I can't speak to that. Yeah. No, I know. Thanks. But I think the use of a best management developing that in terms of four different restoration initiatives would be fantastic, and I'm happy to assist with that, so. Perfect. Perfect. Right. And as it relates to the oysters in Biscayne Bay, I would like to understand better what was the cause of the, you know, I guess it wasn't as successful implementations in the past, and what can be done for a few, like you said, thinking outside the box, maybe revisiting how we implement oyster kind of ecosystem, right, into Biscayne Bay. So that, I thought that was very interesting. Yes. Yes. Thank you, John, for a great presentation. Just piggyback on my earlier comments relative to aligning the regulatory code and, like, resilience adaptation type of projects and also restoration type of projects. I think this is a perfect example where there's a lot of money going into, like, sea level rise adaptation, capital improvement projects, and where you can tack on solutions like this. But it's not going to happen if suddenly you're adding two years to the permits or something like that for doing it. So that part needs to be made a lot easier. Yes. Agreed. Commissioner? Through the chair. Yes, I absolutely agree with that. And I think that there are a lot of exciting, you know, potential means with which you can do this in terms of seawall applications and that sort of thing. And so, but again, the permitting is the key. So if it's going to take longer, it's going to be more expensive. Folks aren't going to adopt it. Yeah. And that's something we can look into. Commissioner Fernandez. Thank you, Madam Chair. And to that point about the permitting, I think we can all learn from each other, especially Madam Mayor, you as a member of the League of Cities and myself, you know, I've been seeing the work you've been leading on in North Bay Village with permitting, with reduced fees, with incentives to incentivize this type of new infrastructure that's developing. And I think we need to be sharing this using our resource with the League of Cities to be disseminating this information to all of our other fellow coastal cities so they can be looking at similar policies, whether it be developer incentives when they use more of these eco-friendly seawalls, living seawalls, or whether it be substantial reductions in permitting fees to encourage homeowners to seek this out. We have such a great tool with the League of Cities where we can definitely disseminate this information. And I just wanted to highlight it because you, Madam Mayor, have taken such great leadership. And I can tell you that in Miami Beach, I'm looking at the policies you've been adopting. I think Coral Gables has also been doing similar policies. So we're learning from each other. Cuddler Bay has been doing similar policies. Usually, I love it when Miami Beach is the one in the forefront of stuff. And in this case, I'm happy to be learning from my fellow cities so that we can continue advancing these policies and be great. If there could be a repertoire of these policies that we are passing that can be shared along with all the other coastal cities. Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, may I just respond to one thing? We're working on it. There you go. Good response. Yes, Mayor. Okay, I thought you were scratching your head. Okay, anybody else on this side? Yes. Well, you spoke already. Hold on. Anybody else on this side? Who hasn't spoken? Okay, Dave. And then we'll wrap it up with you. Great. Yeah. The gentleman you were referring to a while back was a community advocate, Tico. Yes. Who did his oyster project. In Hudson River in New York, they predicted that they were going to need a billion oysters. And they've already done tens of millions. So the question I ask myself as a guy who goes and is trying to scale the cleanup movement around plastics, we need to figure out how to move from the science and research that you're doing and the best practices that you're doing to mass scale. So the question that I ask myself is, how do we get that kind of scale where we are getting the restaurants that serve oyster shells to contribute and donate their used oyster shells? They have to be dried somewhere. They have to then be deployed out somewhere. And how do we get hundreds of people figuring out how to restore oysters? It's not just a marina. We're going to, you know, all of the docks along the bay would be potential partners in this. And so it's not just the municipalities. The county needs to get water quality right. The community can help with restoration. So how do we make that leap from the work that you're doing to a, hey, this model will work. We've tried it. We've demonstrated that it's success. Now, how do we involve the masses into all participation? Because when you get that participation, that's when magic happens. Yes. Through the chair. Yes, absolutely. So couldn't agree more with that. I think you brought up a great example, the Billion Oyster Project up in New York. And so there are similar initiatives throughout the country. That is something that when we talk about scaling, if you remember from my presentation, in terms of utilizing restorative aquaculture techniques to accelerate that restoration process. So there's a lot we can do to sort of let nature take its course. We can put out habitat, substrate, that sort of thing. But we can also accelerate that process utilizing native genetics, right? One of the big concerns when we talk about restoration initiatives is sort of are you replacing an existing organism or the genetics associated with it with something from another region, right, where it may be maladapted. You may be introducing something that you don't want there. And so what we're aiming to do is to do this in a very thoughtful way, where we're utilizing native broodstock oysters to conduct these restoration activities and to help scale that up. If these organisms are already adapted to our Biscayne Bay conditions, they would be best suited to scale up. And so I think it's, you know, through community education, stakeholder engagement, as well as the science behind it, I think, like you said, that's where the magic happens. So, yes. Great point. Dr. Redwine? Yeah, and I just wanted to bring a little bit of focus to one of the subtle things that you pointed out, which was small changes in elevation produce dramatic differences in the outcomes of initiating oyster reefs. And so, you know, we see that throughout the Everglades, right? And actually, if you look clearly historically on all continents, indigenous people have been doing engaged in mound building processes and floodplains because they've all come to the same conclusion. A little bit of elevation goes a long way in a relatively flat environment, particularly when you have abundant nutrients and you're looking for abundant things to eat. So when I think about getting to scale, Dave, what I really, the opportunity that nature-based solutions provide us is that they have a self, they have a positive feedback loop. You can initiate a positive feedback loop with establishing populations that can grow, sustain themselves, and spread. I think what we need to do really is look for a full spectrum of opportunities for what we can do with oysters and what we can learn from them. Sometimes we can put oysters out in a challenging location and learn that there are certain contexts or conditions that they can't survive. And maybe we can, you know, then focus on those things which are limiting their survival. But, you know, the bottom line is we need to get behind the people who are leading our culture and who are driving us into a future where we all have better quality of life. And we need to ask these leaders of our culture to take risks and take risks that, if accomplished, are supportive of environmental outcomes so that we can rally around you and create the type of expansive and community participation, expansive community participation that is required to get to the outcome that we want, which is clean water over a wide variety of, over a wide acreage in a lot of different, over a lot of time and a lot of different physical contexts. So, thank you again for bringing this discussion up. I think it's, there's always a story of somebody who tried something and it didn't go right. And I think that we need to, you know, reframe that and focus on what are our no regrets actions. And in this watershed, looking at oysters and learning from oysters and doing every, putting every, every tool on the table that we can get, that we can think of to improve water quality is something that we should do. So, thank you. Thank you. Agreed. Agreed. Anybody else before we move on to the next item? I want to make sure. Anybody on this side? This side? Okay. Thank you so much. That was really, really a great presentation and discussion. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. At this time, I guess I'm going to ask Pamela Sweeney. She's our chief water resource coordination division supervisor. I don't know. We'll just add a few more words to that. But she's going to provide us a brief introduction. Basically for our next two presentations. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project, which is critical for Miami-Dade County. And so I also want to make sure we keep the presentations succinct so we can really make sure we have time for all the questions and comments. Because I know we're going to have many. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. That is a lot of words. I'm with our director. Pamela, I think, works the best. But thank you for the opportunity to hear from our speakers this morning. Mr. Christian Kamrath, our resilience program manager at Durham. And Dr. Minashki Chaba, who serves as the ecosystem and resilience scientist for the Everglades Foundation. So an internal colleague and an external colleague who are going to bring you really great information. And more than anything, we're going to bring you into sort of a 50,000-foot view series of subjects that take you really a watershed look at how we do with resilience, how we do with restoration, respectively. So to do that, and as you all move into your charge as the body that we'll be developing and then implementing and seeing through the development of a watershed plan for Biscayne Bay, I just wanted to orient us quickly around what a watershed is and why this approach was determined to be the best per the Biscayne Bay Task Force members. And knowing that a watershed is really just that area of land that drains to a common endpoint, and we have lots of common endpoints here in Miami-Dade County, right? You think about our canal systems, you think about our historic rivers and tributaries, and how those have been altered over the years, as you can see up on your screen. We really needed to endeavor to think through what approach would be best for such a series of issues that, of course, exist around our water quality issues, our habitat degradation issues. And a watershed approach really looks at restoration as hydrologically defined and not defined by political boundaries. We even have a few, you know, Broward County municipalities that are going to be involved in our endeavor with the RAP, for example. But the idea here is that this acknowledges that there's lots of land uses, there's lots of activities, there's lots of interest in our watershed, and we need to entertain those and have those be a part of and sort of intertwined in the fabric of a restoration plan for the Bay. And so this is really sort of systems-level thinking. This understands that these bodies of water are connected. What happens on the land doesn't stay on the land, as we've heard before from our Mayor Lynn Cava and our Chief Bay Officer. But we also know that there's a way in which we can do these things through a lens and maintain the integrity of what our community is based on, right? Recreation, agriculture, industry, and of course people wanting to live here for some time. This is a comprehensive planning approach, so this is looking at not just things like water quality alone and something like the Reasonable Assurance Plan, but rather ways in which we can really think through the ways, you know, all of the tools available to us. It's targeted, so how do we get the most bang for our buck? Where are the majority of the problems, and how do we resolve those to get the best benefit? Using the people's money wisely and our time. And lastly, it's a collaborative. So we know that a watershed approach is largely collaborative, be that across agencies, across communities, across other counties. So your charge, of course, at the onset of the Biscayne Bay Task Force endeavor was set out for you, of course, and it was stated in the document as, as it is the hope and the mission of the task force that this unified and collaborative vision, overseen by a body of agencies and stakeholders, will be effective in bringing about tangible and lasting change for the health of our bay, for the quality of life of our residents and visitors, and for the future of our region's economy. And I think this is what Dr. Chaban and Mr. Kamrath are going to bring to you at a high level today, from a resilience and restoration perspective. And the other thing that this document endeavor to do is ask us to look at existing policies and guidelines, the code of Miami-Dade County, our comprehensive development master plan, and its relative or respective elements, capital improvement plans across our watershed, and most importantly, those resilience initiatives and those restoration initiatives that come to bear. Resilience on one hand, because we know when we typically think of resilience, we think of infrastructure, and that's important. And we know that sometimes those things can kind of rub up against each other. You know, how do we have a resilient community behind that mean high water line, without causing great damage to the very resources that also help protect, as we just talked about natural shorelines and living shorelines, can often be our best line of defense. So how do we align those two? How do we reconcile those two things? And so the watershed plan gives us an opportunity to do that. And then also, how do we build in the regional restoration approach, but also these localized, targeted opportunities? And so we've historically undertaken these activities with sort of the brunt of those negative outcomes, be it stormwater management or land use practices, sort of, where those outcomes are felt downstream and are not always positive. And so in developing the first ever watershed plan for Biscayne Bay, we endeavor to sort of live up to that promise to perform those important services for the people, whether it's flood protection or safe and functional infrastructure, to bring water to our homes, take waste away, and basically carry our lives out and accommodate development. What's intended here really is to do that through and perform those functions through the lens of a resilient Biscayne Bay as well. And so we are in good company also. We've talked a lot about other communities around the country. Watershed approaches have been undertaken by the Great Lakes space and Chesapeake Bay, even our neighbor Tampa Bay, as a way to integrate the very things that we've talked about here today, the small and the big. Regional restoration, big resilience initiatives like you'll hear today from Mr. Camrath and Dr. Chava, as well as those targeted approaches, no doubt like the reasonable assurance plan. And so how do you take these issues that the task force, and we have our very own Mr. Jim Murley who served on that task force for many years, a good two years. What did they do with that? How did they start this work for us? And how can we sort of take that series of policies that guide what you see on the left hand of your screen and those policy documents, that scientific information that sometimes can live in silos, and how do we bring that together under one roof called the Biscayne Bay watershed plan, of which you know the ROP is just a piece, of which land use practices are just a piece, et cetera. And so I'm really excited to welcome Mr. Camrath first to talk about coastal storm risk management and then later Dr. Chava to talk about regional restoration and the watershed. Thank you so much, Pamela. Good morning, board and board members. I'm Christian Camrath, as was mentioned, and I work in our Durham Division of Environmental Resources, Environmental Risk and Resilience. So I have a couple slides today to talk about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Back Bay Coastal Storm Risk Management Study, otherwise known as the Back Bay Study. This is a very long-standing complex study, but I'm going to try to boil it down, and then happy to take questions after. So to bring a little bit more context to the coastal storm risk management perspective, this is just a graphic we like to use a lot to explain how, you know, when you think about the urbanized areas where we live, the infrastructure, the economy, et cetera, it's really sitting between two waters of the Everglades and Biscayne Bay. And, of course, when we think about flood hazards, we could talk about, you know, rainfall or extreme rainfall, rain bombs that we've been seeing at an increasing frequency, how that translates to stormwater in our canal system. Of course, we have tidal flooding, king tides, especially in the fall. And then I think you don't have to look far to know and recognize in Miami's own history, but in the history of the state of Florida and the Caribbean, hurricanes have some of the potentially greatest threats to our communities, especially when we talk about storm surge. Of course, there's extreme winds, but the storm surge, the large increase of water that comes ashore during these storms, is something that this study is really focused on. And then sea level rise, of course, directly or indirectly exacerbates our ability to deal with, live with, all of these different flood hazards. So the Back Bay study is actually one of several longstanding partnerships and initiatives with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This sort of transect or map looking west to east, you know, across Miami-Dade's landscape, these different initiatives at the top sort of show the relative spatial areas that these studies typically cover. So we work with the Army Corps on, of course, Everglades restoration and BBC, which this board has heard quite a bit about. There's the Central and Southern Florida Resiliency Study, called the 216 Study, looking at particular salinity control structures and canals in the central part of the study. There's beach nourishment, which was recently reauthorized for a large portion of Miami Beach. The port and maintaining activities at the port and the harbor. The Back Bay study is really concerned with storm surge. And it's really looking at that coastal, I mean, all of Miami-Dade could be considered coastal, but those areas east of the salinity control structures are where you see the dominant influence for coastal storm surge. So that's what the Back Bay study is really looking at. And Key Biscayne has their own sort of mini study with the Army Corps that the counties have partnered with as well. And to just reiterate, when you work with the Army Corps of Engineers on a coastal storm risk management study, there's a handful of types of activities that they're authorized to look at. So starting on the left, we talk about adapting individual buildings with the Corps of Engineers refers to as non-structural. On the far right, you can see structural. Those are the larger, you know, levees, seawalls, storm surge gates, that kind of thing. But adapting individual buildings, whether it's flood-proofing, commercial buildings, elevating residential buildings, or even looking at property acquisition or buyouts to reduce that risk long-term. That's one way to think about reducing our risk to storm surge. Obviously, huge support in this community and from our mayor about nature-based solutions to deal with coastal storms. So most of you all are familiar with these types of things. We were just talking about oyster reefs but could also talk about coral and hybrid reefs, dune reinforcement, living shorelines, mangrove and wetland restoration, and even looking at plugging some of the defunct canals that actually act as a conduit for storm surge, especially in southern parts of the county. We're looking at those as well. And when it comes to structural measures, those of you who have been following the study that started back in 2018, you know, initial proposals from the Corps looked at structural measures, large walls in Biscayne Bay, cutting through the community, obviously with a ton of support from not just the community, environmental groups, but also, you know, businesses, and many other folks from Miami rejected that, and the mayor was able to work also under Jim Murley's leadership here at the time to have the Corps pause, reevaluate, and set us on a course that made more sense for Miami-Dade at the time, looking at non-structural and nature-based solutions. The structural measures aren't completely off the table. There is still an opportunity, possibly in a phase, a later phase of the study, that would require separate authorization and funding to look at a system of storm surge gates, for example, possibly out by the barrier islands, the inlets, and so forth. So, this study has actually broken up into multiple phases, so I just have one slide for each phase. Phase one is what was actually completed, a feasibility study that was completed in 2024. So, I'll get into the details, but the key to know about the Army Corps process and how we have to work with Congress to get appropriations to jump through all the hoops, the first step is to get your feasibility study completed, signed by the Chief of Engineers, which is why we call it the Chief's Report, and get it authorized in the Water Resources Development Act that Congress passes. So, that was done in 2024, signed in 2025. And what was included in that plan, which evolved over the years prior, was a handful of what we call non-structural measures. So, on the left-hand side, we're now in the process of seeking appropriations to begin the design phase for a couple of recommended projects. Flood-proofing up to 27 critical infrastructure facilities, including county and municipal facilities, which are like fire stations, police stations, critical wastewater pump stations. Flood-proofing those to not have that same level of damage or disruption in the event of a storm. Elevating upwards of 2,000 residential homes. I say this is on pause or on hold, and we're not seeking appropriations for that right now. We could go into the potential pros and cons complications with home elevation, but actually the Army Corps itself, they have a couple of pilot projects in Louisiana, New York, as well as the City of Norfolk, where they haven't done many home elevations, especially at scale. So, they're wanting to see how those play out before they move forward with many home elevations in other parts of the country. And lastly, flood-proofing commercial buildings. You know, these are businesses or other commercial facilities that might support storm recovery and resilience. So, flood-proofing, that means like dry flood-proofing typically. We're putting either temporary panels or watertight doors or elevating critical equipment, electrical panels, mechanical equipment, other things that support that building's structure. And that's being done across six initial focus areas, highlighted in purple here. So, these were identified by looking at the areas that were at most risk to a high probability storm surge and areas that maybe had a lower capacity to respond to a storm in the future. So, that's where those non-structural and critical facilities are located. And so, in addition to that, there was work with the Corps to find a creative path forward for the nature-based solutions. I think some of the concerns or challenges that have been brought up earlier, like permitting, getting full environmental surveys, et cetera, it can take a long time to get that. And the Corps had a limited time to complete the study. So, the real, I think, win for the county here was having an unprecedented pilot program, a nature-based solutions pilot program authorized up to $180 million to help Miami-Dade County learn with the Army Corps and the other stakeholders, how can we deploy and monitor and evaluate the type of nature-based solutions that are geared towards coastal resilience, but have an obvious, you know, ecosystem restoration benefit among others. A non-structural study is a separate potential future study that would help the Army Corps and the county look at more complex types of facilities, like hospitals or other facilities that the Army Corps doesn't have sort of like a playbook for. So, that could be a separate future study. So, that's phase one. Phase two is what's ongoing now. This is a continuation of the feasibility study. We say 2027 study because that's when the Army Corps anticipates we'll have completed it. And what that's looking at is a continuation of, okay, we only looked at six initial focus areas in the first phase. What are the other focus areas, locations where we know they're highly vulnerable to storm surge. We're talking about even just a 10-year storm, which means a much more probable, maybe category one type of storm. But other areas that sort of align with the county's priorities, whether it's synergizing capital projects like subject to sewer conversion, other areas of important economic development, areas that have that lower level of disaster preparedness or recovery capacity, and areas for future nature-based solutions. So, we think a lot about South Dade, the Cutler wetlands areas. So, these focus areas on the left you'll see in the hatched markings are looking, again, you can see the handful of additional focus areas. Most of the shoreline of Biscayne Bay coming from Brickell north to the Biscayne Canal. Then you have, from the original focus area on the Miami River, looking at areas just east towards downtown, but also west towards the airport. I mean, those are very low areas. Now, if we were to get a hurricane today, a major hurricane, we'd see storm surge extend that far up. And their modeling does incorporate several feet of sea level rise, which you can imagine just increases the spatial area that might be at risk. And then you see areas down south in Homestead and Florida City, as well as parts of North Bay Village and Normandy Isle in the north part of the bay. And Saga Bay as well in the Cutler Bay region. So, their ongoing analysis of basically what are all the buildings that are in these focus areas. They're sort of doing a quality assurance on, you know, how old is this building, what are our assumptions about the first floor elevation, et cetera. And I think it's getting cut off here a little bit, but they are working on what they call the tentatively selected plan, or TSP, expected by late April. So, that's where the county will get kind of its first look at, like, what are their initial recommendations for what will likely be continual, you know, flood proofing, potential home elevation, et cetera, for those buildings here, as well as a much larger swath of critical infrastructure to be flood proofed. And kind of just wrapping up with what are our next steps ahead on this project, as I mentioned, for those phase one projects already authorized, we're seeking federal appropriations. And once received, the county would enter into a design agreement with the Army Corps, and that requires BCC approval because there is a non-federal match component. For phase two, what I was just describing, like I said, there will be continued analysis. We're reviewing those, some of the initial results with the Army Corps in the next month or two. We'll see, you'll see a lot more public engagement opportunities across the board going through the summer. And that's probably going to be timed closely with not just the tentatively selected plan, but the draft report, which we expect by June, late June of this year. And that usually triggers the public comment period after that. So we'll be doing everything we can to make sure we're doing our typical, you know, Zoom webinars, in-person engagements, to make sure everyone has a sense of this. And we can obviously come back to the board. But our final goal with the phase two feasibility study is to get it completed, signed by the Chief of Engineers in August of 2027, and work to get that in the WERDA bill for 2028. And the last thing I'll mention is, you know, there's many layers and phases to this. Like, it's almost, it's been very challenging to communicate even internally and with the Corps on, well, which phase are we talking about? So we have some forthcoming communications materials that I'm really excited about to just help tell the story of how the Back Bay study fits into the context of all the other county coastal resilience, watershed planning, water quality efforts. So that'll be coming out here in the next few months. And that'll, I think, time really well for our public engagement coming up. Thank you. Thank you so much, Christian. It's really very informative. And I'm going to open it up to the board for questions and comments. I know James Murley was involved at the first iteration that was, I'm glad to see that they've pivoted. Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Christian's did a really good job distilling some very complicated, what I call core speak. And I just want to go back to the introduction and why a watershed plan. Because what happens to a local government, the core speak, we're called a non-federal sponsor, is if you don't have your own statement of what you want to achieve, you end up just getting into the silos that you just saw described. And you're going to be, you're always reacting. That's, when I was there, we were always reacting. They're trying to guide the core now to outcomes that are what the county wants. And that's why a watershed plan could be so valuable. Because it should be a combination of those two things. The core, you know, has been around 200 years, and they know how to do what they do. But often it, if you don't give them the county's values and what you want to achieve, then the outcome is going to be, you know, not as much as you could get. So I think the watershed plan is very important for that reason, Madam Chair. Thank you. Agreed. And we're going to be going right into that. Before we do go into the next. Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Christian, great presentation. Thank you. This $180 million for nature-based pilot projects, how can I get some of that money? No, seriously. Yeah, through the Chair. So the status of that, it's similar to those non-structural projects. We can't really kick off that pilot program until we get federal appropriations. Okay, so this is an appropriations request that's pending? Yes. And we're actually just this week submitting an earmark request through Congresswoman Salazar's office. So that's, our hope is, right, there's multiple pathways to get federal appropriations. One is through the community project funding or earmark process. So, you know, best-case scenario, and there's a lot of competition and there's a lot of challenges with getting those, just that initial federal appropriation. Once we do, it's sort of like opening the tab and funds can flow a lot more easily for future years. But what we could expect, right, it would be in the next year we receive federal appropriations, a very small initial amount. We enter into an agreement with the Army Corps, and that will kick off basically a new process. I mean, we have a lot of information. There's been so much conversation back and forth. But that would kick off a process where we would likely solicit project ideas, you know, open to municipalities, other stakeholders. And there's actually a selection criteria that the Army Corps and the county, with help from others, have developed to have that initial pass of like, okay, is this going to be a good project? It doesn't have to be necessarily shovel-ready, but, you know, is this a good concept that the Corps and the county feel will be a good fit for this pilot program? So, again, that would be a process that, at best, would start in the next year. And we would be looking to identify probably at first maybe one to two projects. And that the good thing about the funding is that it's not just funding to study a nature-based solution. It's funding that can support A to Z, the planning, the design, the construction, the monitoring and evaluation, which is critical for a pilot program. So, I mean, we have to manage our expectations working with the Army Corps based on congressional, you know, yearly appropriations. It's not to say it's the fastest way to see a nature-based solution in the county. And, you know, we're working on many other funding sources to try to get these types of projects in the ground. But, like I said, once you open the tap, we open up that process to the larger community. We use the criteria to help guide initial projects. You know, we'd love to see projects in the bay that are providing significant coastal resilience benefits. So just a follow-up question. How involved or not has the Florida Department of Transportation been, if at all, in the Army Corps back-based study? And I ask because our bridges that connect Miami Beach to Miami through North Bay Village are going to be entirely reconstructed by FDOT in 2029. And we pushed FDOT really hard, actually, to do their state-mandated sea level rise impact projection. And so those bridges are going to be higher and wider. And there is a phenomenal opportunity to plant mangroves on the north and south side of the State Road 934 corridor. And that's just one of what I'm sure are dozens and dozens of opportunities. So how are we going to be managing the sort of interagency necessity of ideating and selecting these projects? And then my follow-up question is also about the elevating commercial structures piece of this plan, which seems to be like a fundamental pillar. I'm sure there's criteria, but it feels really confounding to me how we would pick and choose winners and losers for privately owned commercial structures to receive what essentially is taxpayer dollars to protect their buildings. Yes, thank you to the chair, Mayor. Great questions. On the first one, FDOT, I'd say on an almost quarterly basis, the Army Corps of Engineers hosts what they call a resource agency meeting, where they bring in pretty much as many federal and state agencies as possible together to get an update. So they've been, you know, involved in general. They were very involved in some of our early design charrettes we did a couple of years ago. And I recall concepts being proposed, right, of living shorelines along the causeways. I mean, I'm not here to speak for FDOT. I think the county is interested in pursuing those types of opportunities where it makes sense. And they would, of course, they would be one of those agencies that we would solicit input or ideas from working with, you know, municipal partners and others to see is there a strong project concept here? And how can we get everyone on board, you know, to propose it for the pilot program? But also just in general, like how can you be getting other funding to support hopefully what is, you know, the collective recognition that we could use more of these types of projects? So others may, and we can come back to you with, you know, a bit more detail on what are those potential conflicts that FDOT and others are seeing? I know it's been conversations long before my time starting on this study, so I'm happy to look at that. And the second question, I think you mentioned elevating commercial properties. And just to make sure to clarify, it's flood-proofing commercial properties and elevating residential. But to your point, yes, of the almost 400 commercial properties, I mean, the county, we'd be interested in flood-proofing those commercial facilities that actually support and contribute to the public's resilience and recovery. So whether that's a pharmacy or some other type of business that plays a role in that, I think that would be one of those potential criteria we use to help facilitate that. Sorry to, like, just play devil's advocate a little bit, but shouldn't Walgreens and CVS and Publix be flood-proofing their pharmacies? That's a fair question. I think, and part of that is that there is a match, right? There's a 35% non-federal match that we would expect the private businesses or commercial facilities to put up. So, you know, we're trying to take advantage of any opportunity to get funding to come to Miami-Dade County. You know, it's the Army Corps policy, right, to consider commercial flood-proofing, just understanding that businesses play a large role in the resilience of the community. So I can't speak for those businesses, but, you know, it's not necessarily saying that additional funds for Miami-Dade County are going to provide that non-federal match for a private business. Okay. Thank you for that question, though. Thank you. Commissioner Fernandez. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Christian, for the presentation. Miami Beach, as you probably know, recently submitted a letter to our Congresswoman supporting the federal funding for the Back Bay Coastal Storm Study, particularly to advance the nature-based solutions pilot program and design efforts to protect our critical infrastructure. As, you know, our city is very interested in nature-based infrastructure, and I think you all have seen our efforts as it relates to that, and, you know, we've been looking at strengthening our dune systems. We've been looking at hybrid coral reef structures, living shorelines, mango restoration. Madam Chair, you were a big part of that, of those efforts when you were on the Miami Beach dais. As this study moves forward, I'd like to better understand what types of recommendations may ultimately be planned for Miami Beach specifically. Thank you for that question. So, as there are a couple components to the study, you know, we already mentioned the non-structural components, so the critical infrastructure in Miami Beach, the residences. I understand Miami Beach is one of those few places where you guys have FEMA hazard mitigation grant dollars to elevate, I think it's at least two homes in the community, so we're watching those closely to see how that works and what lessons can be learned. And on the nature-based side, you know, we mentioned things like dune reinforcement, and then I would also, you know, on the back side of the island, also there's, of course, the opportunity for living shorelines. I mean, the city has been a leader in implementing some of those, I think, like Brittany Bay Park and others. So those are the, I think, more of those types of opportunities where there's space for it, right, to have living shorelines, that kind of thing. And then I referenced what would potentially be a future phase of the back base study. We call it phase three. When I mentioned those structural components, right, and if we're thinking big and we're thinking long-term, you know, if you have storm surge gates, for example, at haul over inlet and government cut, and there's a system that is tried to be put in place for temporarily closing the bay off to a storm, you know, you would want to make sure that the dune system all along Miami Beach is at a particular elevation. And that's where I was going to, because, you know, our barrier islands, Miami Beach, but all of our neighboring municipalities, Madam Chair, do you so well represent, you know, they are quite literally at the front line of defense for the mainland. And we also have, you know, one of the primary economic engines for Miami-Dade County and the state of Florida. So I'd really like to see the Corps studying opportunities to further strengthen and fortify our dunes as part of this effort, because it certainly is critical not only to Miami Beach, but I think for the region, for the mainland, to have those protections. And just, you know, going back to the home elevation programs, you know, you mentioned that that's currently paused by the Corps, but, you know, this is one, this is a critical, I believe, an important long-term resilience strategy for Miami Beach, and for several other coastal communities as well. So I'm just wondering, are there any pathways being considered to address that moving forward? Yeah, so home elevation, as I mentioned, there's some of the initial focus areas, and I'll back up for the Army Corps, right? As I said, they want to see how this plays out in certain communities where they're further along in the process. So New York, southwest Louisiana, and the city of Norfolk, we actually talked to the city of Norfolk in the last two weeks. They have a pilot area of, I think, about 60 homes that they're working with the Army Corps to elevate. So, and I should also mention, Monroe County did a similar back-based study where there was a recommendation for home elevations, and they've actually... For which community? Monroe County. On the east? Yep. Yep. So because we're not the first to attempt something like this, we're going to be looking for those. I would say other opportunities, really important to note the Florida, I think it's the Division of Emergency Management, they have a program called Elevate Florida. It's a grant program, and, you know, a little bit different than the traditional FEMA hazard mitigation grants that you might see either pre-disaster or after a storm. Elevate Florida is a state program where property owners can apply directly to the state for funds to do things like elevate their home. I think there's a couple other eligible activities, and so for the residents, I think buyouts are also an eligible activity there. For the residents who, you know, are the property owners who don't want to sort of sit and wait around for the Army Corps to decide, you know, we're going to move forward in Miami-Dade County, there's state programs and state funding that allows residents to apply this upcoming year for those matching funds. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have really just two comments. One is I find it a little ironic that we are talking about how to protect ourselves from sea level rise. Climate change is the cause of it, and we're about to spend all of this money, yet we're getting preempted and state-level and federal-level policies that are going to exacerbate our problem. And so we're going to spend all of this money to elevate businesses' and individuals' homes, yet we're failing to stop the pollution that is causing the problem in the first place. The second thing is in conversation, I was really struck by Mayor Streitfeld's comments on the JFK causeway. I also want to recognize what I think is a tremendous opportunity to restore a more natural water flow in Biscayne Bay on the Julia Tuttle causeway. And while I love the idea of doing mangroves and Mickey's mangroves, we've been talking about this for 15 years, but I would love to see the Julia Tuttle causeway elevated with more open space to restore the natural water flow because this should not only be about protecting built properties. This should also be leveraged to improve and restore to the best extent possible. If we're going to do all this work, we're building a beautiful bridge on 395, and so I can't imagine that the cost is going to be the objection anymore. So they're not going to be able to make that argument anymore, so I would really love to see the Julia Tuttle. And so if that's something that you can advocate for with FDOT and the core, that would be spectacular. And now I'm going to hear about this for the next four years. And Madam Chair, if I could just follow up on what you mentioned, if I may, through you, Madam Chair. Because Member Dobler, you just mentioned, you know, we're talking about funding to elevate people's homes. You know, the reality is that we've seen very little of that state dollars from Elevate Florida actually making its way to Miami-Dade County and into our communities. And that's a challenge because, you know, if we, if the home elevation program with the course is paused, and then we don't have money coming in really in substantial ways coming in from the state of Florida through Elevate Florida, then what options do people have? Right. Great question. So what I will say, and by the way, we quickly did research Elevate Florida. I believe it's closed right now, the cycle, funding cycle, and I guess it will reopen when funding becomes available again. So when it does, though, we will advertise that because I think it's important for people to know all their options. Any other comments before we move on to our next presentation? I will say one thing, though, as we're having this conversation, and I think it's important as we talk about the private adaptation side, but I also want to make sure, like, when we're looking at this and the pilot, whatever, whatever we end up honing in on, whatever you all decide, you know, is the critical areas that we need to hone in on from, from, on the private adaptation side, I would also try to see if those locations have the public infrastructure side already in play in the queue or already have been implemented because there are a lot of areas that have been working really diligently, whether it's Miami Beach, North Bay Village, some other areas where they are really working on that public infrastructure side, whether it's a raising of a road or putting in additional drainage systems and doing things that are going to be ready for the future so that, you know, the predictions have come up, as you know, much higher than they should be, and this is supposed to protect storm surge, primarily the back-based study, but it'd be great that those areas are also kind of taken into account when we're, when we're focusing on the private adaptation side so that we can really, you know, I, I think that would be very, a good complement and hopefully urge the public sector to, to make that a priority on the public side if they know that we're going to be looking at the private adaptation that would complement each other, okay? That was just my thought. Any other comments, thoughts? Okay. Thank you so much. We, we look forward to an update on this in the future, please, so that we can, and I know she's going to be following the money, Rachel, to see where it goes. All right. Thank you. Next item. Oh, our, our, our next item, Dr. Dr. Chaba from, is going to provide a comprehensive Everglades restoration program and, and discuss the Biscayne Bay watershed. Good morning. My name is Meenakshi Chaba. I'm from, I'm from, I'm ecosystem and resilience scientist with the Everglades Foundation. And thank you, Madam Chair and board members for giving me the opportunity to talk about Everglades restoration and its critical connection to Miami-Dade's water supply, economic strength, and long-term resilience. The Everglades Foundation is an environmental nonprofit with the sole mission to restore and protect the Everglades, and we do that through science, advocacy, and education. I want to begin today by addressing the critical challenge that we face today as a region. South Florida is known as the land of water, and yet, in early February this year, the South Florida Water Management District released water restrictions and imposed water restrictions on several counties, including Miami-Dade. By late February, a wildfire was discovered in Big Cypress National Preserve, which has now grown to 35,000 acres. And, excuse me, so, and we have been across the region facing rainfall deficits. Rainfall amounts since November 2025, the start of a dry season, has been restricted and below the 25th percentile across the region. This has led to water levels in Lake Okeechobee being affected. In the graph on the right, you see a red line, and that stands for the water levels for this year. At 12.26 feet, this is 2.27 feet below normal, and much lower than the gray zone, the band that you see that is required for healthy lake levels, and also below the blue, green, and pink lines from earlier years. All this rainfall deficit from our dry season, as well as 2025's below-average rainfall in the wet season, has meant that we are in an extreme drought condition that we haven't seen in the past 25 years. All across South Florida, including 66% of Miami-Dade County, as can be seen by the dark red, with the rest of the county in moderate to severe drought. This has led to declining water levels in Biscayne Aquifer, the only aquifer from which we draw water from, to meet the drinking water needs for over 6 million residents in southeast Florida, including all 2.8 million residents of Miami-Dade County. This has affected the coastal waters as well. As you can see in the graph on the right, the green climbing line is the increasing salinity levels in Manatee Bay and southern Biscayne Bay. Now, you might have noticed that I have walked you through a very abbreviated journey of water conditions across South Florida, from Lake Okeechobee all the way to the Biscayne Bay watershed. That's because all these elements, our elements, are part of our water supply. They are one system, one watershed, and that is the greater Everglades ecosystem. Now, we draw water from the Biscayne Aquifer, but that water originates from the Everglades. The iconic habitats and soils of the Everglades capture, absorb, and filter the rainwater that we receive. And as that water flows south, it seeps down the limestone rock underneath to slowly recharge Biscayne Aquifer. And when the Everglades dries up, either because of drought conditions that we are facing or because only 11% of water deliveries from Lake Okeechobee reached the Everglades, as they did in the past week, we and our water supply in Miami-Dade dries up. Moreover, the low water levels in Biscayne Aquifer means it gives a chance to salt water to creep up into that void and contaminate our water supply. Now, for thousands of years, the abundant fresh water of the Everglades flowed unimpeded across the South Florida landscape in the Everglades system, from Lake Okeechobee all the way to our coastlines. But we degraded the Everglades to half its size, reducing fresh water flows. And what that did was produce multiple crises that repeated themselves, from fish and seagrass die-offs to algal blooms to the drought, saltwater intrusion, and fires that we see today in the region, all because of the degradation. In the year 2000, however, we turned the page in history to authorize the comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan that aims to fix these problems. Now, Everglades Restoration includes a series of water infrastructure projects that are re-engineering our landscape, but with nature, so that we can be ready for a 21st century economy that we need to be. Now, they are a complex set of projects, but I can break down their objectives into three. One, they increase the water storage capacity of the Everglades. What that means is that projects like the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir will capture billions of gallons of water in the wet season when we have plenty of water and store it for the dry season or the drought conditions so that the water supply for people and in the environment is not at risk. Second, it cleans that water through natural means or constructed wetlands so that the phosphorus that is added from agricultural and urban runoff is reduced and we get clean drinking water for people and the environment. Thirdly, it sends that fresh water south. Projects like raising the Tamiami Trail and bridging it allows the water to reach where it needs to be for the first time in decades, almost 100 years. Now, Everglades Restoration is something of a resilience multiplier. You might have heard climate change as a threat multiplier, and I say Everglades Restoration is a resilience multiplier. And I'll, although there are many dividends that this ecosystem restoration project is providing, but I will stick to three, restrict myself to three. One, water security. For the past 25 years, Everglades Restoration has ensured that all of us, when we open our faucets, we get high quality water for drinking, for bathing, for running our businesses with. But in addition to that, it provides long-term water security by being a novel climate action. As volumes of fresh water are sent south, they create and strengthen the fresh water barrier that slows down the salt water intrusion that contaminates our water supply. Second, restoration provides risk reduction. As we move more water south into our coastal system, it strengthens our inland and coastal systems that are a natural infrastructure protecting us from flood damages, whether they are from extreme rainfall or from storm surge. And lastly, but not the least, Everglades are a foundation for a thriving economy. A report from last year by the Everglades Foundation estimated that the Everglades' natural capital is worth a trillion dollars, and it generates goods and services that are worth $31.5 billion annually. These are tangible economic benefits, ranging from $9.2 billion annually for real estate to a recreation industry which gains $8.5 billion. And it reduces flood damages from inland as well as coastal flooding by $8.4 billion for the region's residents. In short, our economic prosperity is based on the Everglades. And with every dollar invested, we get $4 in benefits, and this benefit-cost ratio implies that restoration is worth it. Now, in closing, I'd like to say that through civilizations and centuries, communities that endure are the ones that protect their drinking water supply. And here in Miami-Dade, we can do this by being strong stewards of the Everglades, by consistently respecting the urban development boundary and not pushing development into the Everglades wetlands because they are the foundation of our water supply, security, economic prosperity, and long-term resilience. I thank you for your time. Thank you so much. Very helpful. I'll open it up now to the board. Okay. I think Dave Dobler will kick us off. Yes. As I think back through all of the presentations today, I struggle with what is our action? What do we do? You know, there's things at the state level that we're asking the feds and the state for money to do this and to do that. This is the one area I believe that our county commission has an opportunity to actually take action on. And that is protecting these lands that we need in order to restore the water flow and to absorb this water into our aquifer. Holding the line on the urban development boundary is critical because if we, once we pave over it, we're not getting that land back. My struggle with SERP has been and BBC has been over, you know, the 15 years that I've been involved in, it's taking a tremendously long time to identify what that plan actually looks like. You know, this parcel, is this parcel going to be included? Is it not? And I think we have an opportunity here to recommit to our protection and standing strong against moving the urban development boundary because it's not only about the wildlife, it's about our ability to sustain the increased number of people who are moving here into South Florida. And so, this is an opportunity for us to identify those areas and stand strong about not allowing wetlands to be developed. We have to figure out how we protect these spaces and it comes from the commission and DERM and RER for saying no to projects that do not align with our long-term survivability in Miami-Dade County. And I would like to see us really just be like, yeah, that project's not going to be approved. These things need to happen and we also need to make sure that we are investing in acquiring lands that the county and EEL has already identified that we're going to want or need. And so, I challenge our commission to figuring out how we balance our growth today with our long-term sustainability because we know that when we run out of water or when we build somewhere we shouldn't and it floods, they're just going to come to the federal government or the state government and say, please give me money so I can remediate the damage that is happening on the property that, yeah, you told me I shouldn't build here, but you gave me permission. So, these lowlands, these wetlands, we have to protect them and we have to acquire these lands that we know we're going to need for BBCer and SERP and all of these other plans that we've been developing for 15, 20 years, we know the answers. We now need to start moving on it. The second thing I'm going to say, sorry for the rant, but we also need at the county level to recognize opportunities to move forward today. For example, the C7 and C8 canals, there's a big retrofit. We're going to be reshoring these up and what are we planning on doing? Metal slabs, concrete, riprap. We're not, we talk about the need for nature-based solutions, but we miss the opportunities. Hobie Beach North was a wonderful opportunity to build nature-based solutions when they, after the hurricane, and yet, what did we do? Now it's palm trees and beach and parking lot. Instead of, so we need all of the county agencies to be looking at opportunities, whether it's the canal retrofits and restoration or new lands that we, or like a new beach, like Hobie North. We need all of the different entities within the county to be looking for opportunities, presenting these opportunities, and then we, then the commission needs to hold these projects to account and rant. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? We'll start on this side. Anybody else? Okay. Yes. Yes, please. Mr. Torres. Thank you, Madam Chair. I think this is a good opportunity to make a suggestion, a request, moving forward, not just for this one presentation, but everything we do in the future. I've heard about nature-based solutions, restoration. You know, the idea here is to restore Biscayne Bay and the watershed to what it was historically. Well, historically, Biscayne Bay had a lot of coastal habitats that had been lost because we changed the hydrology, we overdeveloped, and increased the salinity, and they've been taken over by mangroves and other things. Coastal marshes, brackish marshes, are gone from the Biscayne Bay watershed. These provide habitat to species that are no longer here. So I would suggest and request that as we move forward, we look for opportunities as we restore the hydrology back to where it was historically, we also restore these habitats wherever possible. That's going to improve not only the Quad to Biscayne Bay, improve that diversity. I mean, I represent the Nature Conservancy, I have to speak for the creators. So, you know, the little warm and fuzzies, they deserve a place too. So just something to keep in mind that historically it wasn't all just mangroves. I apologize to the mangrove lovers, but I think of an analogy that mangroves have become the dolphin of coastal restoration. Remember, everyone was about save the dolphin, dolphin-free tuna, dolphin-free tuna, but what about the tunas? So, yeah, mangroves are nice, but what about all these other habitats that have been replaced by mangroves because of the mistakes we made? So just a comment I want to suggest out there. Thank you. Very, very good comment. Thank you. Anybody else? Yes, please. Dr. Edwin. I'd just like to say thank you, Dr. Chaba, for your presentation. You always do a good job of framing the process of healing a regional landscape into an economically realistic framework, and I would say Mayor Stiglitz, let's see if I got that right, Mayor Steinfeld, Stridefield, sorry, Stridefield, yeah, names aren't my best skill. I would say, you know, the way to get the money is to have a real clear narrative that you know works, that passes multiple criteria. We're laying out this vision here. To get money through the Corps of Engineers, you will have to have an effective messaging campaign. The Corps of Engineers is really good at doing what it's told. It is not so good at the PR process. So, really, the local sponsor is going to have to do that. And I would say having friends like Dr. Chaba is essential for getting a realistic plan on the table and funded through WERDA. and make as many friends as you can because the WERDA process, getting resources through the federal government is, well, it's, you know, everybody wants to get on the list and the list is long. But, whenever you have a clear solution that transcends site and scale, we have a solution that can be applied to multiple sites across a large area in a consistent manner, that's exactly what the Corps of Engineers is good at. They're good at bringing ideas that are well-vetted, that are locally supported into a scaled outcome so that it has a meaningful effect on a large system. That's basically, you know, what they've done to develop the economic process around the Mississippi River. That's what they did to enable the real estate development process of Florida since the 1880s. And, you know, we hope that that's what the Corps of Engineers can do to revitalize and restore large-scale ecosystems like the Everglades. So, you know, I really liked what we've done today. I recognize the challenges as Dave identifies them. There was a, one of the, one of the, one of the founding participants in the National Park Service said, an ecologist becomes aware of a universe of slights, misdeeds, and outright lies. I would add to that, missed opportunities. We're definitely going to continue to have challenges and miss all our opportunities. But the more we can build a community here, the more we can be clear and precise about what we're shooting for, what kind of outcome we want, and the more we can listen and learn from each other, the better off we are. And the more likely we can get an outcome that scales to a $1 trillion asset or scales to $110 billion worth of economic, annual economic activity, which is the combined activity of what we think Biscayne is and Everglades, the Everglades ecosystem. And as these systems become healthy, they become shining stars on the planet that attract resources globally. And there's no reason why this $100 billion annual economic return can't be $200. You know, we just have to think about it with intention and, you know, act at scale. And that requires a lot of listening and learning, which I'm certainly committed to do. So thank you very much. No, thank you for that. You know, I'll say, Dr. Shaba, it's so great when we can partner with our, you know, with the different organizations and entities that I think have the same core mission and give us a lot of more insight. And this is a great platform, too, because, you know, hopefully the public is tuning in and can also be a part of the conversation and solution as well. So I really want to thank you for your excellent presentation and for taking the time to be here today. Are there any other thoughts or comments regarding her presentation? I'm going to move into our future agenda items, and I think this is important. By the way, I think for Mr. Dobler, he'll be happy to know that the mobile pump-out is going to be on our April BCC. Finally, it took its way. I am one of the co-sponsors, so we checked, and it should be on our April BCC agenda. But, Nancy, I don't know if you want to come up and give us some highlights on some things that maybe we can kind of dive into. We're obviously going to request the status of the marine debris plan. I think that's important. I'd like an update from Durham on that and have it share with the advisory board and maybe the June 5th meeting. the procurement status of the watershed plan would be interesting. What else did we discuss? Yeah. Thank you, Madam Chair. Dave had made a request about getting an update on the closing of the treated sewage outfalls and I had reached out to WASDE. That's their program. Unfortunately, I didn't get the information in time for today's meeting, but I've asked for it. I think it's something I could pass along in an email. It'll just be an update of where they are in that process. I don't think we need a full presentation. The procurement of the watershed plan, we are all working, myself and Pamela and her team and my team on with the procurement department to launch the EDP process to get the consultants for the watershed plan. So that's something we're going to be getting launched this month, I hope. That's our goal. And the marine debris plan, I know Durham colleagues are going to be working on it. I'm not sure if the June 5th meeting will be ready. I can push for that. I think if we could get that, it would be great. but I haven't actually confirmed that yet when they could present. Okay. Are there any other topics that you would like covered? And I know Nancy does a really good job at putting together a lot of what we discussed and getting our next meeting and agenda together. But if there are any other items that we haven't mentioned that you would like to see presented, by the way, you can always also email Nancy, let her know about something that you would like to maybe, if it doesn't come to you right now, feel free to email her if there are ideas that you would like to be discussed or brought up or a presentation made in front of this board. And I'm sorry Nancy, I'm volunteering you. But she will absolutely look to see if she can incorporate it into one of our upcoming meetings. So you have that. But in the interim, I think we had a really important meeting, a lot of very good insight and a lot of things for us to really drill down on and think about and hopefully create action items at the county commission. Yes. Madam Chair, just something, since it's a hot button topic that a lot of us have in our minds during this legislative session, of course, the big conversation about the important conversation about property taxes and of course the impact that that has on the lives and the affordability of residents throughout our communities. But equally important is an understanding of what is the potential impact on critical infrastructure on, you know, we were talking about water quality projects on drainage on, you know, natural resources, you know, projects that we have on natural resources, the protection of Biscayne Bay and our wetlands and everything else. And I think, you know, since the Senate hasn't discussed this yet, but probably will because at some point they're going to have to discuss this unless they don't discuss it, which would be, from my perspective, you know, perhaps good for them not to discuss it. But it would be important to know what could be the potential impacts to everything having to do with Biscayne Bay, with infrastructure projects, drainage, water quality, and everything else related to the conversations that we engage in on this board on a regular basis. So, Nancy, I think what we could do is, I'm sure there are a lot of, you know, session is scheduled to end in a week, and I think there are a lot of different items that do affect Biscayne Bay, either directly or indirectly, generally speaking. Maybe we can have Jess McCarty give us a legislative update of what transpired and how it affects this board and our mission, okay? Yeah, he's great at that. Generally speaking, so let's have him come in June. That will be after session, and I'm sure there are other, you know, whether it's some of the issues that I know different members here have gone up to Tallahassee to advocate on behalf for or against to see what happens. All right, thank you so much. All right, and with that, thank you all. Madam Chair, one thing, can I follow up on the request to either get an update from Durham or see the draft Living Shoreline Best Practices Guide? Absolutely, and just so you know, we also had put in a legislative request for that to see what we can also do, my office can do to help getting all the feedback on how we can try to streamline and also make sure that we are always looking through that lens of how can we make it better, and so yes, I would love to see that draft as well. Would we be able to maybe get an update via email so we don't have to wait until next quarter? Nancy, 100%. Amazing, thank you Nancy. All right, well so thank you very much for a wonderful meeting. Dave, I was so close. I know. I was so close. We have the upcoming Biscayne Bay Marine Health Summit coming on May 20th. We invite everybody to join us. I think that we would have two weeks, maybe we could put a recap together of some of the output and the ideas and what happened at that summit. Maybe this is a good opportunity. It would give me something really difficult to work on in two weeks, but I can get it together if the board so wishes. If anybody wants to attend, sponsor, we are going to actually be hosting a day before a municipality workshop on the Reasonable Assurance Plan. So we're bringing together and convening all of the different municipalities to help workshop all of the ideas that are going to go into the Reasonable Assurance Plan. So maybe I can give a recap on that. And also because legislature would be over and there are some technical fixes for SB 180 that I understand are coming down, I would love to maybe get some ideas from staff on how we can now move forward on protecting some wetlands, including some of the ideas that were presented in Dr. Browder's wetlands protection. that this motion that we passed here. Thank you. Yes. Okay. That was good. All right. With that, meeting adjourned. And thank you. Thank you. man.