The Story
At its October 13 meeting, the Cooper City Commission raised the authorized Clean Water State Revolving Fund loan for a new wastewater plant headworks from $7.42 million to $8.904 million, an increase of $1.484 million, according to the city.
The city says the new headworks will help it handle the extra water that enters the wastewater system during storms, known as inflow and infiltration. The project also has a $1.092 million grant from the EPA Community Project Funding program, and construction is expected to be complete in 2028.
Source: City of Cooper City, October 14, 2026
The infraTerra Take
This is the plant side answer to a collection system problem, and it is a common one. Cooper City needs headworks that can survive a storm, but every gallon of inflow and infiltration that reaches the plant is a gallon of rainwater and groundwater the city pays to pump, screen and treat.
Our recommendation for any Florida utility borrowing for wet weather capacity is to fund source reduction alongside it. Flow monitoring isolates the basins that respond to rain. Smoke testing, CCTV and manhole inspection then point to the defects, and a share of those will sit on private laterals the utility does not own. Plant capacity and pipe rehabilitation are not competing priorities. The second one protects the investment in the first.
For contractors, a utility that has just financed plant capacity because of I&I is a utility that has already admitted the problem in a public meeting. That is the right moment to talk about collection system evaluation and rehab. For agencies, the same Clean Water SRF program that funds headworks can fund collection system work, and the savings case is worth modeling with our I&I ROI Calculator.
What to Watch
- Whether Cooper City pairs the headworks with a collection system evaluation or rehab program
- Other Broward County utilities seeking SRF financing for wet weather capacity
- Construction progress toward the 2028 completion target
