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RESOLUTION URGING THE FLORIDA PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION TO DENY FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT THE ABILITY TO RECOVER COSTS FOR REMEDIATING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS FROM THE TURKEY POINT POWER PLANT AT ADDITIONAL COST TO RATEPAYERS, TO THE EXTENT SUCH COSTS ARE NOT ALREADY COVERED BY THE PREVIOUSLY-FILED PROPOSED ELECTRICITY RATE INCREASE THE BOARD OPPOSED IN RESOLUTION NO. R-322-16

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WHEREAS, Florida Power & Light (FPL) operates the Turkey Point Power Plant in south Miami-Dade County, adjacent to Biscayne National Park and Biscayne Bay; and
WHEREAS, operation of the Turkey Point Power Plant, and particularly use of the approximately 5,900-acre unlined cooling canal system to cool nuclear-powered Units 3 and 4, has had significant negative impacts to environmental resources in the area surrounding the plant, including the creation of a plume of dense �hypersaline� saltwater that is migrating outside the boundaries of the cooling canal system into the County�s drinking water aquifer, as well as leaching water tainted with ammonia and other contaminants into Biscayne Bay; and
WHEREAS, FPL has been aware of the environmental contamination emanating from the cooling canal system since at least 2010; and
WHEREAS, in 2015, the County�s Division of Environmental Resources Management issued a Notice of Violation to FPL for its continued impacts to groundwater and entered into a Consent Agreement with FPL, requiring the utility to undertake various actions to reduce and remediate the impacts, including the installation of wells to intercept, capture, contain, and retract hypersaline groundwater; and
WHEREAS, since then, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection has also entered a final order requiring FPL to undertake certain actions to address the environmental damage from the cooling canal system; and
WHEREAS, at a Florida Senate joint committee hearing conducted in Homestead on April 29, 2016, FPL represented that the remediation costs could be as high as $50 million this year alone, and that the utility would seek to recover those costs from customers; and
WHEREAS, FPL�s customers include over 1 million homes and businesses in Miami-Dade County, which is a larger share of FPL�s 4.8 million customers than any other county; and
WHEREAS, in January 2016, FPL filed a request with the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) to raise the base rate of the monthly bill of a typical customer by $13 a month, which increase would be phased in over four years ($8.50 in 2017, another $2.50 in 2018 and $2 in 2019); and
WHEREAS, the January 2016 request did not include the costs of remediating the environmental damage from Turkey Point; and
WHEREAS, in Resolution No. R-322-16, this Board opposed that proposed rate increase because of its potentially adverse impact on certain sectors of the population, particularly on those elderly residents and others who rely on fixed incomes to pay for their daily needs; and
WHEREAS, under state law, FPL is allowed to earn an annual return on equity within a range established by the PSC, which is currently set between 9.5 percent and 11.5 percent; and
WHEREAS, regardless of the outcome of FPL�s pending rate increase request, FPL�s customers should not bear any additional burden of paying for FPL�s environmental cleanup, which should instead be borne by FPL�s shareholders,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA, that this Board hereby:
Section 1. Urges the Florida Public Service Commission to deny any electricity rate increase or special assessment proposed by FPL to pay the costs of remediating the environmental impacts of the Turkey Point Power Plant, to the extent such costs are not already covered by the previously-filed proposed electricity rate increase the Board opposed in Resolution No. R-322-16.
Section 2. Directs the Clerk of the Board to transmit certified copies of this resolution to the Chair and Members of the Florida Public Service Commission, and the Chair and Members of the Miami-Dade County State Legislative Delegation.