AMEC-BCI provided site design and permitting for a 72-acre site in Center Hill for a proposed cement plant. The plant site was permitted through the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) and contained 8.92 acres of paved roads, 1.19 acres of impervious area, 13.07 acres of buildings and 1.39 acres of storage facilities. Environmental concerns on the site included karst sensitive areas, wetlands, floodplain impacts, and maintaining drainage to Jumper Creek.
Stormwater Projects
AMEC-BCI is considered a pioneer in Integrated Water Management techniques as our professionals were among the first in the industry to offer solutions which successfully integrated the science and engineering aspects of watershed management. Our stormwater project teams are comprised of both engineers and scientists who combine the principles of drainage science and ecology to ensure stormwater is handled in an environmentally friendly and beneficial manner. Our stormwater expertise includes projects related to Clean Water Act initiatives such as compliance services for NPDES Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4s). Our stormwater managers have more than 20 years of NPDES experience and have been responsible for the development and compliance of thousands of NPDES facilities from concept and design to construction and inspection. They have overseen hundreds of stormwater retrofit projects since the early 1990s when water quality improvements for old development was becoming of interest to MS4 clients. Our stormwater professionals are experts in applying the State’s stormwater rules. We also stay abreast of new rule development so as to provide the best direction we can to our clients.
This project involved alleviating the flooding of an evacuation route for the City. The CDBG concept plan called for placing the upgraded storm sewer down a city road, resulting in roadway reconstruction. AMEC-BCI staff figured out a way to run the outfall pipe through an earthen area, saving funds that were applied toward additional water quality improvements. AMEC-BCI was responsible for design, permitting, and construction oversight of the project. The design reduced the frequency of flooding of the intersection, resulting in a level of service improvement that allows traffic to negotiate the location even during extreme storm events.
The Lake Menzi project was the first project conceptualized under the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) Ridge Lakes Initiative Program to be taken to design, permitting and construction. The 17.36 acre drainage area serving central portions of the Town of Dundee was a high priority project from previous outfall assessments completed along the Ridge. The majority of this priority basin consists of commercial and services (62 percent). Lake Menzie is located in the heart of the Town of Dundee, and down gradient of Highway 17 (Alt 27) (Main Street) which is operated by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).
The Brittany Estates project was one of the first water quality BMP projects for Lake County to implement in the Lake Griffin watershed, an impaired Florida waterway. This development was a classic lakeside development predating stormwater regulations and having directly connected impervious areas discharging to the lake. AMEC-BCI’s design included expansion of a grassed area with an outfall and no volume for treatment into a dry retention pond with no impact to the community’s social events held in the higher bench area of the stormwater facility.
This project was a high priority stormwater retrofit project for Lake County in the Lake Griffin basin. AMEC-BCI conceptualized a number of stormwater elements including baffle boxes (2nd generation), french drains, and adding stormwater treatment volume to conveyance swales. Design details included fitting roadway culverts with DBI control structures to obtain storage through the system. The older portion of this development had no favorable areas for BMPs except at the bottom of the hill adjacent to the lakeside roadway. A french drain system with protective pre-treatment baffle boxes was chosen as the most appropriate BMP for nutrient and TSS pollutant removal.
The headwaters of Kitching Creek are located south of Cove Road, east of the South Fork of the St. Lucie River and west of U.S. Highway 1 in Martin County. Surface water flows in the watershed had been impacted and redirected by land development such as roads, commercial, residential and agricultural activities. The quality of water reaching the Loxahatchee River has been degraded by these same land development activities. Stormwater flows were redirecting into a stormwater treatment area to improve water quality to the Loxahatchee River. AMEC-BCI was involved in the post-construction monitoring of the project to measure improvements to water quality provided by the stormwater treatment facility.
This project included conceptual design for a permanent pump and pipe from a closed basin wet pond on Tanglewood Avenue to an existing dry retention pond on Hamilton Avenue in Orange City, Florida. During Tropical Storm Fay, approximately 13 inches of rain fell within the vicinity of Orange City over a period of seven days. The Tanglewood pond, a wet pond with no gravity outfall located north, was pumped throughout the event to prevent flooding of the adjacent homes.
AMEC-BCI was selected to provide services for this CDBG grant-funded project, administered by Jordan & Associates Grant Consultants. Services included a sanitary sewer extension in two neighborhoods and a water line extension in one neighborhood. AMEC-BCI designed approximately 2,200 LF of gravity sewer with two lift stations, as well as 1,900 LF of force main and 1,400 LF of water main. A portion of the roadway within the project’s right-of-way was completely replaced and the remainder was milled and resurfaced. A challenge faced by the project team was the narrowness of the right-of-way, which could have created conflicts with other water and sewer utilities and separation requirements.
AMEC-BCI is performing a variety of stormwater and environmental engineering services in coordination with Hillsborough County’s Public Works Department for various capital improvement projects. AMEC-BCI’s primary role is to perform Project Development & Evaluation (PD&E) studies and final designs for capital improvement projects and retrofit stormwater projects.
AMEC-BCI was retained by Lake County Public Works to perform a basin study for the Lake Dora, Lake Beauclair, and Lake Carlton drainage basins. The focus of the study was estimating pollutant loads to surface waters, performing a structures inventory, creating a database, and prioritizing outfalls for potential projects. Water quantity problems were also assessed as applicable.
AMEC-BCI was selected by the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) to develop a stormwater utility that would serve to fund the City of Avon Park’s stormwater program and enable them to protect its precious water resources. Immediately prior to this engagement, AMEC-BCI was contracted by SWFWMD to develop a detailed citywide Stormwater Master Plan for the City of Avon Park.
The plan was developed based on SWFWMD’s guidelines and specifications for conducting watershed management plans. These guidelines were developed jointly by Federal Emergency Management Agency and SWFWMD and require rigorous quality control and a high degree of correspondence between the GIS database/mapping element and the associated hydrologic model parameterization and connectivity.
AMEC-BCI was retained by Seminole County to evaluate the 860±-acre urbanized Cassel Creek basin to determine the priority stormwater and base flow pollutant loads to the creek which discharges to the Lake Howell/ Lake Jessup/Middle St. Johns River system. AMEC-BCI is currently advancing the highest priority BMP, a three acre in-line extended wet detention system to serve 419 acres of the watershed, through the construction plan preparation and permitting stage. The pollutant load removal analyses was based on monitoring data which differed appreciably from land-use-based load estimates and adjustments for baseflow loads and existing removal from surface water and wetlands within the flow-way had to be made.
AMEC-BCI was retained by Lake County to implement and update the 1997 Master Stormwater Management Plan for the Lake Dora Basin. The goal was to avoid spending time conducting studies to define load reduction goals and targets for Lakes Beauclair, Dora, and Carlton, and begin project implementation. This was achieved more quickly by utilizing available information and supplementing it with select information collected during the project.
AMEC-BCI was selected by the Citrus County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) to provide comprehensive, as-needed engineering support. Some of our services to date include: Stonewall Place Drainage Improvements, Shorewood Stormwater Pond and the Ivanhoe Terrace Drainage Improvements.
To support the continued protection of the City’s precious lake resources and accommodate the impending federal water quality mandates inspired by the Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) program the City of Sebring decided to create a dedicated funding mechanism. AMEC-BCI was secured by the City of Sebring to assist in the implementation of a city-wide stormwater utility as the final task in the development of a comprehensive stormwater management initiative. The project was co-managed and cooperatively funded by Southwest Florida Water Management District.
AMEC-BCI was hired to assist in the development and implementation of a citywide stormwater utility for the City of Avon Park. AMEC-BCI prepared stormwater inventory of stormwater ponds, pipes, inlets, outfalls, ditches and swales, conducted stormwater needs assessment, developed stormwater Capital Improvements Program (CIP), prepared parcel mapping and impervious area assessment, developed equivalent stormwater unit, developed initial rate algorithm and fee, prepared billing database, assisted with data preparation for mock billing and other services.
AMEC-BCI was hired by Lake County to improve water quality discharges to the Palatlakaha Chain of Lakes, particularly discharges to Lake Minnehaha. There is existing direct discharge from Elbert Street in a residential area retrofit with french drains and a splash pool upstream of a wetland fringe on Lake Minnehaha. AMEC-BCI provided services included pollutant loading & pollutant reduction calculations, resolution of conflicting survey easements required, vacation of existing easements, accommodating existing utilities, & saving existing trees.
AMEC-BCI was hired by Lake County to improve water quality discharges to Johns Lake. There is existing direct discharge from Shore Drive in a residential area retrofit with swales and ditch blocks upstream of the wetland fringe on the lake.
Pratt Street, a collector road in the City of Starke, has a history of flooding due to stormwater runoff from U.S. Highway 301 and the adjacent residential areas. The new stormwater system consists of a 1.5 acre wet pond controlling the water table 10 feet below surface to provide treatment and attenuation of the 50-year critical event. A shallow dry area adjacent to the wet pond provides additional storage for larger events, and is designed with under drains so that the area serves as a park and butterfly garden with public access.
AMEC-BCI developed a 20-year master plan for the City of Haines City’s stormwater system. Included in the project was a study of several areas prone to flooding and runoff damage and suggested short and long-term solutions. A stormwater utility fee structure, based on an equitable water quality rate algorithm, was created to fund the cost of ongoing maintenance activities and annual capital projects identified during the study.