Potable Water Project

Review a map of the Potable Water Project(PDF, 1MB) in Pinecrest. 

Learn how to connect(PDF, 636KB) to the Miami-Dade County Water Water and Sewer Department (WASD).  

For questions not addressed in this page, please email communications@pinecrest-fl.gov.

How many residential properties in the Village did not have access to Miami-Dade County's potable water system?

725 properties. In addition, the Village-wide fire hydrant system will be completed with the installation of approximately 191 hydrants. 

Does the Village of Pinecrest operate a water utility? Will it derive revenue from this project?

No. Water service is provided by Miami-Dade County's Water and Sewer Department. Once construction of the project is completed, the infrastructure will become property of Miami-Dade County. The Village of Pinecrest will not derive any revenue from this project. 

What is the cost of project?

The total approximate cost is $11.3 million subject to final bid numbers.

Who will pay for the project?

The project will be paid in part with funding to the Village from the American Rescue Plan recently signed into law by President Biden, $500,000 from Miami-Dade County's 2004 General Obligation Fund and revenues collected from a special assessment on the affected properties that will derive a special benefit from the project.  

What is the approximately cost of the annual assessment to each property owner?

The annual cost to each property is estimated to be $359 per year for 25 years

How long will it take to complete the project?

Construction is 95 percent complete and should be finalized by summer 2023.

Once the project is completed, will property owners have to connect/hook-up to the water system?

Affected property owners must connect to the water system within 10 years of the water line being activated. After 10 years, individual property owners may seek from Miami Dade County's Environmental Quality Control Board (EQCB) an additional extension or variance from the requirement to connect to the system.

What happens regarding the special assessment if I sell my property?

If you sell your home, the new owner will assume the responsibility of paying the annual assessment. The sale of a property will also require the new owner to construct the service line from the meter to the home within 90 days from the purchase of the property.

Are there additional costs to affected property owners aside from the annual special assessment fee?

Once a property owner decides to connect to the water system, each affected property will be responsible for one-time connection costs which are estimated at about $2,500-5,000. Consult a licensed plumber as each property is different.

The test referred to as “flushing” in the update above involves pumping fresh water through the newly installed pipes with the effluent from this flushing coursing onto the roadway and the swales. This testing is done at night and the contractor should notify residents when this work is scheduled.

The test referred to as “Bac-T” in the update above involves allowing water to escape from a fire hydrant out of a small 1/2” tube. This water runs continuously and samples drawn and tested for bacteriological contamination.  

Many residents have called worried that the Village/Contractor/WASD is wasting water or that there is a water main break of some kind. This is not the case. We appreciate our residents’ diligence but this test is nothing to be concerned about. 

 American Rescue Plan Text

On March 15, 2021, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. signed into law the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021 (the "American Rescue Plan"). The latest COVID-19 stimulus package provides approximately $1.9 trillion in spending to address the continued impact of the pandemic.  Within the ARP, the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund provides $350 billion for states, municipalities, counties, tribes, and territories, including $130 billion for local governments split evenly between municipalities and counties.  

Based on the initial information that has been provided by the U.S. Department of Treasury, the Village of Pinecrest is expecting to receive an allocation from the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund in the amount of $8,049,357.  The anticipated allocation is based on a population estimate from 2019.  The allocation which must be spent by December 31, 2024, may only be used for the following purposes:

(A) to respond to the public health emergency with respect to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID–19) or its negative economic impacts, including assistance to households, small businesses, and nonprofits, or aid to impacted industries such as tourism, travel, and hospitality;

(B) to respond to workers performing essential work during the COVID–19 public health emergency by providing premium pay to eligible workers of the metropolitan city, nonentitlement unit of local government, or county that are performing such essential work, or by providing grants to eligible employers that have eligible workers who perform essential work;

(C) for the provision of government services to the extent of the reduction in revenue of such metropolitan city, nonentitlement unit of local government, or county due to the COVID–19 public health emergency relative to revenues collected in the most recent full fiscal year of the metropolitan city, nonentitlement unit of local government, or county prior to the emergency; or

(D) to make necessary investments in water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure. 

Just one day after the signing of the ARP, the Village Council held a Strategic Planning Workshop on March 16, 2021 during which members discussed Pinecrest’s anticipated allotment.  The Village Council’s general consensus was that funds should be used to address categories C and D, as categories A and B were already addressed previously with funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). 

Signed into law on March 27, 2020, the CARES Act provided the Village with $1,040,556.35.  Those funds were used to reimburse the Village for COVID related expenses, provide hazard pay increases for police officers (Category B), provide rent abatement grants for businesses and impacted industries (Category A), and offer online marketing training for businesses to assist in economic recovery efforts (Category A).

Further discussions and decisions regarding the use of the ARP allotment specifically for category C, replacement of lost revenue and category D, new water infrastructure will take place during future scheduled meetings to be held on April 13, May 11 and June 8, 2021. 

Village Council Takes Major Step Towards Resolving One of Pinecrest’s Enduring Issues

At this evening’s meeting, the Village Council unanimously approved the establishment of a special assessment to complete Miami-Dade County’s potable water and fire hydrant system in the Village. This is a major step in finally resolving an enduring issue, resulting from the county’s approval of development of the area in the 1950s and 1960s, and a perennial matter for Village Councils since the incorporation of Pinecrest in 1996. 

Approximately 725 homes in the Village still do not have access to the county’s potable water system and rely on wells. This has been especially problematic for a myriad of issues including failing wells, the threat of salt-water intrusion and unreliability of well systems during storms due to power outages.

Former Mayor Gary Matzner had negotiated with the county for the inclusion of monies in the General Obligation Bond, approved by county-wide voters in 2004, for expansion of the water system in the Village. At the time, the funds were not sufficient to complete the entire system so a “spine” was constructed to facilitate future expansions and approximately 500 homes did gain access to the water infrastructure at the time.

For years, seeking monies from state and Federal sources to complete the system has been a major priority for the Village. Unfortunately, many funding sources became very limited in the years following the Great Recession of 2008. Although this is a “Pinecrest” issue because it affects so many properties in the Village, it is important to note that Miami-Dade County is the water utility – the Village does not operate a water utility. The construction of water infrastructure by the Village becomes property of the county which is then responsible for providing service and maintenance. The county also derives revenue from the sale of water. At this time, the county has committed $500,000 to the Pinecrest project.

In March of this year, with the passage of the Biden Administration’s American Rescue Plan, the Village was notified that it would receive approximately $8 million of Federal funds that could only be used for very specific matters including water projects. The Village Council and staff worked quickly to take the necessary steps to use most of those dollars to finally resolve the water issue in Pinecrest. The balance of the project will be paid by the benefitting property owners with a special assessment of approximately $358 per year for 25 years. Property owners will have up to 10 years to connect to the system.

“Pinecrest has finally solved this decades old problem which has plagued us since before our incorporation,” said Mayor Joseph M. Corradino. “The price for completing this effort will never be less for the Village and homeowners in need. The time to decide was now,” he added.

Pinecrest will receive about $8.1 million from the American Rescue Plan legislation. This money has very specific rules on how and when it must be spent. It can be spent on infrastructure projects such as water, sewer and broadband projects. It must be spent by December 31, 2024.

We are focusing on completing our water and fire hydrant system because it is a primary long-term goal that has not been fully accomplished, and it fits tightly into the rules for how this money can be spent.

This effort has been a top priority since our incorporation in 1996. Because Miami-Dade County has refused to complete their system, each year the Village has sought funding from the State or Federal Governments always with the intent of completing their system. After a long time, we have finally received significant funding to fund this project. As we have moved through this long process, we have made strides in finishing the system. Today, there are only about 700 homes remaining without access to the County’s water system and many fire hydrants do not meet standards for spacing. The total cost is about $10 million. 

Most recently, because outside funding was very slow in coming and we were very close to completing the effort, we held a referendum to ask all citizens in Pinecrest if they would want to contribute to the system’s completion. The effort failed. That left us with few ways to complete the system. We either receive outside funding or those without access to water create a special district to pay for it.

Our approach going forward from today is to consider using the outside funding and, because it’s not enough to finish the project, couple that with an assessment. To be more clear, if we decide to do this nobody that has access to water would pay anything. Only those who would now gain access to the water system would pay. The amount we will be asking isn’t finalized yet but we are aiming at somewhere around a dollar per day. 

We are working on ways to assist those with financial hardships and assure that homes can actually hook up to it when they want and keep their existing wells if so desired. We are putting the final details into a formal proposal for exactly how this would be done. We are bringing this to everyone’s attention now, before we have an exact proposal because we want to make sure people are aware this is coming so when we begin our formal debates nobody is surprised. We will be able to begin debating this as a community at our April and May Village Council meetings. If we can do this, Pinecrest will have finally solved this decades old problem which has plagued us since before our incorporation. 

The price for completing this effort will never be less for the Village and homeowners in need. The time to decide is now. If approved, we would aim to sign the contract in June so that our current bid does not expire.

Here is an April 2021 Groundwater Monitoring Report Sampling Event report(PDF, 5MB).