In 2004, Parsons was awarded three general engineering service task order contracts with the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) for hydraulic and hydrogeologic modeling, civil/structural engineering services, and full-service engineering. Each contract has a 3-year term with the option of two 1-year renewals. Parsons was the only firm selected for three contracts, which have a combined estimated value of $35 million in services to be provided.

The SFWMD is a regional agency of the State of Florida charged with managing and protecting the area’s water resources by balancing and improving water quality, flood control, natural systems, and water supply. The SFWMD boundaries extend across a 16-county area, from central Florida to Lake Okeechobee and coast to coast from Fort Myers to Fort Pierce, south through the sprawling Everglades to the Florida Keys and Florida Bay. The region covers 17,930 square miles—roughly 31% of the entire state—and includes vast areas of agricultural lands, water conservation, and enormous urban growth and development. The SFWMD is the oldest and largest of the state’s five water management districts and serves a population that has grown to more than 7.3 million in 2005. Its FY 2006 annual operating budget exceeds $1 billion.

Typical SFWMD Pumping Station

Today, the SFWMD operates and maintains approximately 1,800 miles of canals and levees, 25 major pumping stations, and about 200 larger and 2,000 smaller water control structures. This infrastructure will double after the entire Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) is complete. The SFWMD is partnering with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and numerous other local, state, federal, and tribal partners to implement CERP, which is the largest ecosystem restoration project in the world. This series of projects will be completed over a 30-year period. The projects will focus largely on increasing water storage and improving the timing, quality, and distribution of water deliveries to the ecosystem.

Existing PSRP Drainage Canal

Through our general engineering contracts, Parsons has already provided multiple services to the SFWMD:

• Assisting in new regional hydrogeologic model development

• Designing repairs for more than 23 miles of large drainage canals damaged by the numerous hurricanes that hit the South Florida area recently

• Designing a 400-acre manmade wetlands known as a stormwater treatment area that will treat nutrient-laden water before it enters Lake Okeechobee

• Designing the Picayune Strand Restoration Project (PSRP)

In October 2004, Jeb Bush, governor of Florida, unveiled an ambitious plan to fast-track the implementation of a set of critical Everglades restoration projects, known as the Acceler8 (A8) program. These projects, estimated at a $1.8 billion constructed value, are funded through the SFWMD by using Certificates of Participation (COPs) implemented over the next 4 years, which is 10 years ahead of schedule. Parsons was selected to perform the detailed design of the PSRP as part of the A8 program.

Picayune Strand Restoration Project Recommended Plan

During the 1960s, when no state or federal laws mandated drainage standards or regulated wetlands development, Gulf American Corporation (GAC) set out to develop the PSRP area, dramatically changing the natural landscape of this environmentally sensitive area in Collier County in southwest Florida. The development activities dropped the water table by several feet, changing a once healthy, cypress-dotted wetlands area into a distressed system of invasive nuisance plants. Freshwater runoff that flowed in a broad, shallow sheet to the coastal estuary was now funneled into the Faka Union Canal system. The discharge of concentrated fresh water from the canals reduced salinity—damaging oyster reefs and altering the composition of fish and crabs—concurrently making coastal regions that had once received freshwater discharges over a wide area too salty. Drinking water well fields near the estuary became vulnerable to saltwater intrusion. The PSRP will reverse these effects and restore more than 55,000 acres to its predevelopment condition.

This restoration is being accomplished by plugging more than 45 miles of canals, removing more than 220 miles of roads, and constructing three large, low-head pumping stations ranging in size from 810 to 2,650 ft³/sec. The estimated construction value for this work is $150 million. Parsons is in the middle of the detail design and will continue on in a construction management role when construction activities begin this summer. The entire project is scheduled to be substantially complete by December 2008.

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