Miami, FL – SCS Engineers and Florida East Coast Industries (FECI) were awarded a 2021 Engineering Excellence Award by the American Council of Engineering Companies of Florida (ACEC-FL). The honor acknowledges SCS for the environmental engineering firm’s innovative design that integrates groundwater remediation with the stormwater management system for a 500-acre former landfill site. The design allowed for the repurposing of the landfill into the Countyline Corporate Park in Southeast Florida, where industrial real estate is in high demand. ACEC-FL will present the award at the 2021 FES/ACEC-FL Annual Conference Banquet planned for August 6, 2021, at The Breakers Palm Beach.
In 2015, FECI retained the professional services of SCS Engineers to provide consulting and design services addressing the environmental concerns preventing the transformation of a former landfill into a state of the art business park. The project will be completed in four phases. Phase I, consisting of 160 acres, is complete, with two million square feet of occupied businesses and a 30-acre community park. Development of the other phases, which will include another six million square feet, is underway.
Environmental guidelines require 28% (or about 140 acres) of the site to be set aside for stormwater retention. The set aside would require the relocation of several thousand cubic yards of waste and prevent the 140 acres’ redevelopment. The estimated loss of $300 million in potential real estate sales, coupled with the groundwater remediation expense, made the site redevelopment cost-prohibitive. Unless resolved, the problem also impeded FECI’s corporate sustainability goals.
SCS’s experts in landfill design, closure, and remediation, developed a solution tying together the groundwater remediation and stormwater management systems. The integrated system allows for shallow aquifer recharge with stormwater and captures impacted groundwater at the site’s boundary. “We were able to provide an alternative design acceptable to all the permitting agencies, eliminating the need to set aside large areas for stormwater retention,” said Mr. Som Kundral, P.E., SCS’s senior project manager.
SCS’s remedial actions protect public health while opening the site for reuse. The development will create hundreds of new jobs, deliver several hundred million dollars to the city and county tax base, and provide a 30-acre public park. “We developed a clever solution that protects the environment while meeting FECI’s strategic, social, economic, and sustainability goals,” said Mr. Eduardo Smith, P.E., SCS’s senior vice president of client success.
About SCS Engineers: SCS Engineers’ environmental solutions and technology directly result from our experience and dedication to industries responsible for safeguarding the environment as they deliver services and products. For information about SCS, visit the SCS Engineers website or enjoy our 50th Anniversary video.
About ACEC-FL: Established in 1973, ACEC-FL promotes and maintains impeccable ethics and professional standards among consulting engineering firms in Florida. Member firms and their professional engineers operate with the knowledge of responsibility to the public’s health, safety, and wellbeing.
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