Background:
The City of Sunrise, Utilities Department treats wastewater generated by its customers with secondary activated sludge treatment processes at each of the three treatment plants operated by the Department. The solids which are settled and dewatered are processed at the Springtree and Sawgrass Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP). While the Southwest WWTP's biosolids are hauled to the Sawgrass WWTP for dewatering and offsite hauling. Current regulatory options for disposal of the biosolids are haul to a residual management facility where these solids can be processed to Class A or AA standards then land apply them, or haul to a local landfill. However, local landfills won't accept biosolids most of the year due to capacity and other limiting conditions.
The Florida Administrative Code requires all biosolids to qualify as Class B (digested sludge), Class A (digested and dried), or Class AA (digested, dried and contain no heavy metals) if they are to be applied onto land or agricultural sites. The current options for disposal increase as the classification of the biosolids increases, with Class AA being the highest. The Utilities Department produces a sludge that must be further processed before it can be land applied. This additional processing is performed at a Residual Management Facility (RMF) owned and operated by the Department's hauling vendor. Hauling costs for biosolids have incrementally increased from $43.95/wet ton in 2018 to $132.00/wet ton in 2026, and further hauling cost increases are expected in the future.
Due to the challenges with processing and disposal of wastewater biosolids, coupled with escalating costs, an evaluation of alternatives to a regional approach processing and disposal of biosolids was identified. Broward County Water and Wastewater Services initiated a working group in 2022 with eleven (11) utilities including Sunrise, Broward County, Cooper City, Coral Springs Improvement District, Plantation, Pembroke Pines, Fort Lauderdale, Davie, Hollywood, Margate, and Miramar to explore regional solutions to provide a more cost effective, local, and centralized approach for the long-term management of biosolids.
On March 14, 2023 the City Commission approved the attached Interlocal Agreement (ILA) with Broward County for Regional Biosolids Solutions Study, to examine the feasibility of constructing a regional biosolids management facility in Broward County. The study was completed and recommended construction of a new Regional Facility, using Thermal Drying Technology that produces Class AA Biosolids, within an existing Broward County Water and Wastewater site. The working group reviewed the Study and supported the recommendation.
The next step towards implementation of the Regional Biosolids Solution is the execution of an Interlocal Agreement (ILA) with Broward County to jointly fund the design of the Regional Facility. The City of Sunrise accounts for approximately 10% of the proposed reserved capacity of the Regional Biosolids Facility. The cost of the facility is estimated to be $500M, which includes $50M in design costs. The City of Sunrise proportion of the design cost is $5M, based upon the estimated design cost. Broward County is negotiating the design fee and requires interested Utilities to enter into an ILA in order to determine the capacity of the proposed Regional Facility and the actual design costs. Four of the Cities that participated in the working group have already executed their ILA, and Broward County is expecting the design to commence later in 2026. A future Interlocal Agreement will be required to address the construction funding and operation/maintenance of the Regional Facility, with construction expected to commence in 2029.
Article 8 of the ILA provides Broward County the ability to terminate this Agreement but does not afford the City of Sunrise this same ability without cause.
City staff reviewed the ILA and request permission of the City Commission to allow the Mayor to execute the ILA.