LTC 330-2025 UPDATE ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF 'OPERATION CLEAN WATER' PROGRAM - #3330-2025
MIAMI BEACH
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
LTC#
TO :
FROM:
DATE:
SUBJECT:
LETTER TO COMMISSION
Honorable Mayor Steven Meiner and Members of the City Commission
Eric Carpenter, City Manager ~ ~
August 8, 2025
UPDATE ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF "OPERATION CLEAN WATER"
PROGRAM-#3
The purpose of this Letter to Commission (L TC) is to provide the Mayor and City Commission an
update on "Operation Clean Water," adopted on March 19, 2025, by Resolution No. 2025-33559 .
At the July 10, 2025, meeting of the Land Use and Sustainability Committee, City staff provided
an update of the item "Discuss the North Beach Water Quality and Park View Canal Report." At
the conclusion of the discussion, a motion was made, directing the Administration to provide
weekly updates of its efforts at the Park View Canal, with a focus on Biscayne Beach Elementary
hotspots and associated lateral pipe-lining, above-ground cleanliness (alleyways, street sweeping,
pressure washing), and homeless outreach.
Biscayne Beach Elementary
Staff coordinated with the School Board of Miami -Dade County and the contractor, Vortex
Infrastructure Services, LLC, to obtain an Access Agreement for the Biscayne Beach Elementary
school property. An Access Agreement is a legal document that allows the contractor Vortex, to
perform the lateral line rehabilitation work on the School Board's property on behalf of the City,
and in the process, it indemnifies the School Board of any liability associated with the work
performed. The scope of work will include using closed circuit television (CCTV) to investigate the
condition of approximately 1,300 linear feet of existing sewer lateral pipes, remove any
tuberculation or deformities from inside of the pipes, and install new structural liners inside of the
pipes. Pipe relining is a process wherein a resin-coated liner is inserted into an existing damaged
pipe, the liner is then inflated to form a smooth internal surface, thereby creating a new pipe from
within the existing one without having to perform any excavation.
The purchase order for the work was issued to the contractor and the Building Permit was issued
on Friday August 1, 2025 . The Access Agreement was finalized by the School Board on August
7, 2025, and the lateral line rehabilitation and all associated work began on August 8, 2025 . The
exploratory work is currently underway, and the rehabilitation will follow immediately thereafter. It
is anticipated that the full scope of work will take seven (7) days to complete .
Ultraviolet Sanitization Pilot Project
The formal agreement between the City of Miami Beach and University of Miami (UM) for the
Ultraviolet Sanitation Pilot Project has been under review by the UM attorneys and the City
Attorney's Office. Once the agreement is finalized and executed, the purchase order will be issued,
and both parties will proceed with the study.
One of the primary recommendations of the report was to focus on "cleaning " street surfaces, as
best as possible, to reduce levels of enterococci entering the stormwater system.
Recommendations include increasing the frequency of street sweeping, augmenting street
sweeping by removing visible debris and fecal deposits manually, and the possible use of ultra-
violet (UV) light to disinfect street surfaces. UV light is a known disinfection technology which is
environmentally friendly, in that it does not impart a chemical residual.
The scope of the pilot project includes 73 rd Street, which was documented as a "hot spot". This
location was also chosen because it is a uniform, two-lane street with a median which can facilitate
experimental and traffic logistics, and it is an area where both University of Miami studies
demonstrated elevated levels of enterococci. The street can be partitioned into three segments to
evaluate six conditions (one set of three for streets, and another set of three for sidewalks), and
the conditions to be tested are: no cleaning, sweeping (industrial for streets and manual for
sidewalks), and sweeping plus UV. These conditions are proposed to be tested three times, once
at each segment, to assess whether the UV treated segments show a significant improvement
over non-UV treated segments.
Stormwater Management
The Miami-Dade County Environmental Resources Management (DERM), which has approved
the responses submitted to their last Request For Information (RFI), issued the Class II permit for
the seven Downstream Defender hydrodynamic separator/water quality structures on Friday
August 1, 2025, allowing the City to move forward with the final design and the procurement
process. Construction is scheduled to commence in the first quarter of 2026 .
Routine maintenance efforts remain ongoing: stormwater structures from 72 nd to 77 th Streets
between Dickens Avenue and Collins Avenue have been cleaned twice since March 2025, with a
third cleaning that was completed during the week of July 28, 2025.
The Public Works and Communications Departments met with the customized storm drain marker
company during the week of July 28, 2025 to determine graphic design specifications and will
begin evaluating design options. Drain marker samples were received from the custom storm
drain marker company on Friday August 1, 2025, to assist Staff in their graphic design decision
making.
Sanitation
The Sanitation Division continues to provide:
• Hand-sweeping crews and mechanical sweeping are conducted three times per week in
the Park View area (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). The Multihog machine operates
on alternating days (Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday), focusing on alleyways between
73 rd and 76 th Streets.
• The eleven (11) doggie-bag waste dispensers that were installed throughout Park View
Island are refilled twice weekly, and the associated waste is collected daily (seven days a
week).
• Service frequency in Crab Alley has increased from twice to three times per week. Crews
have been equipped with extended-reach pick sticks (up 6 feet) to improve access within
the mangroves.
• New, once a week service is being provided to the mangroves located between 72 nd and
73 rd Street on the west side.
• An additional litter can has been placed at 75 th Street and Dickens Avenue street end.
• Waste haulers, Waste Management and Waste Connections that were asked to check all
the garbage cans in the alleys from 73 rd to 76 th Street to make sure that all cans had
plugs and lids that were functioning properly, have completed their work.
Homeless Services Engagements
Below is a summary of the Housing & Community Services Department's activities in the Park
View area from July 31, 2025, through August 5, 2025:
Parkview Homeless Services Engagements:
Homeless Outreach Services Team visit
at 8:33 AM. (2) persons engaged. New Hope visit at 8:40 PM. (1) person
7/31/2025 Refused services. enqaqed. Refused services.
Homeless Outreach Services Team visit
at 11 :20 AM with the City Manager . (1) New Hope visit at 9: 10 PM. No
8/1/2025 person engaged . persons found.
Homeless Outreach Services T earn visit
at 11 :42 AM. ( 1 ) persons engaged. New Hope visit at 10 :00 PM. No
8/2/2025 Refused services. persons found.
Homeless Outreach Services Team visit New Hope visit at 12:30 AM. No
8/3/2025 at 2:05 PM. No person(s) found . persons found .
Homeless Outreach Services Team visit New Hope visit at 10:35 PM. No
8/4/2025 at 8:59 AM. No person(s) found . Ioersons found .
Homeless Outreach Services T earn visit New Hope visit at 12:20 AM. No
8/5/2025 at 10 :55 AM . No person(s) found. persons found .
Code Compliance
To support "Operation Clean Water," Code Compliance has conducted weekly walk-throughs in
the North Beach watershed area, completing 589 inspections. These inspections check for
sanitation issues such as illegal dumping, overflowing dumpsters, and trash in the alleys . These
efforts resulted in 79 written violations for creation of a health hazard/nuisance. The data below is
from the timeframe of March 19 to August 5, 2025.
Violations
City Code Violation
Environmental -Illicit Discharge
Property Maintenance Violation
Deteriorated Rain Gutter
Rain Gutter (Stagnant Water)
Stagnant Water
Tree Debris
Sanitation Violation
Deteriorated Dumpster
Garbage/Trash Alley
Illegal Dumping/Disposal
Illicit Discharge (Raw Sewage)*
No Garbage Container Permit
No Garbage Service
Overflowing Dumpster
Overflowing Dumpster/ Illegal Dumping Alley
Refrigerator on ROW
Grand Total
Count
2
2
7
1
1
4
1
70
1
2
50
2
1
1
8
3
2
79
* Discharges were limited to inside of building. Discharge did not enter City's stormwater system.
Pursuing Dredging to Increase Flow/ Flushing (No Update)
Since Park View Canal is an angled and narrow canal within the Tatum Waterway, natural flushing
to dilute pollutants associated with urban stormwater runoff is limited . Dredging of the canal is a
proposed recommendation to increase flushing of the waterway. Bathymetric and geotechnical
surveys and flushing analysis are complete. These analyses are necessary to understand the
efficacy of potential dredging of the canal. The results of these evaluations are being carefully
reviewed for desired water quality outcomes, additional innovative approaches, and the
appropriate next steps. If the construction phase moves forward, project mobilization is
recommended to coincide with the hydrodynamic separator installation to reduce sediment inputs
into the canal following dredging.
For more information, contact
RodneyKnowles@miamibeachfl .gov .
DM/RK
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Rodney Knowles, Assistant Director at