KW Miller Announces Plan to Convert the South Florida Water Management District to an Investor Owned Utility

STUART, Fla., May 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- KW Miller announced today his plans to convert the outdated South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) into an Investor Owned Utility (IOU). Under the conversion SFWMD would be privatized and come under the oversight of the Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC). The following is his statement on this plan. The plan would require approval from the FPSC and State legislators.

The SFWMD has outgrown its dated 'Taxing Agency Structure' and requires a comprehensive restructuring. It has it has become one of the largest water management systems in the United States, which includes managing the regional water supply, improving water quality in addition to assisting in the restoration of the Everglades, Kissimmee River, and protecting coastal estuaries.

SFWMD must be converted into an IOU via a structured privatization process, which will allow it to become a 'Regulated Utility', have sufficient access to the sizable capital required to perform its mission of providing critical water supply and infrastructure upgrades to service South Florida residents.

Under the IOU structure, SFWMD would retain a new professional Board of Directors, a private shareholder base and be fully regulated by the FPSC. Financial and operational accountability transparency and accountability would be significantly improved as all rate agreements would have to be approved by the FPSC under utility rate caps.

As an IOU, SFWMD would be able to raise significant amounts of capital to execute a comprehensive Infrastructure Development Plan ("IDP"). Critical to the IDP will be infrastructure development, finance expertise, utilizing long-term relationships with the Federal/State regulators and their ability to negotiate multi-billion-dollar funding arrangements in the capital markets to complete the significant backlog of water infrastructure projects critical to the residents of South Florida.

UNDER THE IOU STRUCTURE, SFWMD WOULD HAVE EXPANDED CAPITAL RAISING ABILITY TO ISSUE INFRASTRUCTURE BONDS TO PAY FOR THE TREATMENT OF POLLUTED CENTRAL FLORIDA WATER INCLUDING:

1. Construct Series of Distributed Water Filtration Plants to service Deep Injection Storage Well Water;
2. Construct Series of Strategically Located Municipal Wastewater (Brown Water) pipelines to move water to Deep Injection Well sites;
3. Construct Series of Brown Water (untreated) Storage Basins to naturally perk into soil north of Lake Okeechobee;
4. Mandatory Sewer and Water Hook-Up in Densely Populated Areas;
5. Mandatory Nitrogen-reducing enhancements for all Rural Septic Systems;
6. Mandatory treatment of Industrial Water Discharges at the Source;
7. Eliminate the use of toxic chemical spraying in all Florida lakes and waterways.
8. Complete the mandated Everglades Restoration Projects in conjunction with other State Agencies

About KW Miller

Mr. Miller is a senior business leader in the capital markets, energy and infrastructure sectors with over 30 years of combined expertise. He advises, restructures, invests and holds board positions on infrastructure, energy and industrial companies. He Specializes in extremely complex utility restructurings, recapitalization, financing and construction of infrastructure assets. 

Contact:

KW Miller
[email protected]
(202) 495-1505

SOURCE KW Miller