25 Million Gallons: The Biscayne Bay Sewage Disaster in the Virginia Key Bidders' Past

Save Our Marinas | August 2026

On November 3 2026, City of Miami voters will be asked to approve leasing more than 27 acres of public waterfront — the Rickenbacker and Marine Stadium marinas on Virginia Key — to Virginia Key LLC, a venture of Dallas-based Suntex Marinas and Miami Beach's RCI Marine Group, for 45 years, with renewal options stretching to 75. The pitch is a glossy $80 million marina: new slips, dry storage, restaurants, a baywalk.

Here is something the renderings leave out. The people behind this bid have a history on Biscayne Bay — and it isn't a good one.

Every fact below is drawn from government records: a Miami-Dade County Notice of Violation, a Miami Beach city resolution, county sewer-department correspondence, a Miami-Dade County Commission agenda item, and a letter written by the bidders' own law firm. A source list appears at the end so anyone can pull the documents.

What happened on June 20, 2000

On June 20, 2000, a contractor was driving concrete pilings into the water at the Miami Beach Marina — 300 Alton Road, a marina then leased and operated by an entity controlled by Robert W. Christoph — to install boat lifts. The pilings ruptured a 54-inch Miami-Dade County sewage force main running beneath the marina.

The Miami Beach Redevelopment Agency's own memorandum, adopted the following year, describes what came next in plain numbers: the rupture "caused the discharge of approximately 25 million gallons of raw sewage into Biscayne Bay, and closed Miami Beach beaches." The City of Miami Beach later tallied more than a quarter-million dollars in its own cleanup, overtime, and legal costs.

Twenty-five million gallons of untreated human waste. Into the same Biscayne Bay whose public waterfront these bidders now want to control for the next three-quarters of a century.

Raw sewage, closed beaches, a cease-and-desist

The county's environmental regulators did not treat this as a minor accident. On July 11, 2000, the Miami-Dade Department of Environmental Resources Management (DERM) issued a certified Notice of Violation and Order to Cease and Desist. It found that the piling work had been done "without the required DERM Class I Coastal Construction Permit," and that the discharge "created a serious public health threat" and constituted a "sanitary nuisance."

The Notice was addressed to, among others, "Robert W. Christoph, Registered Agent, Miami Beach Marina Associates, Ltd." — and it invoked a provision of the county code under which anyone holding an interest in the site is "jointly and severally liable... regardless of fault and regardless of knowledge of the violation."

The matter was serious enough to require years of untangling. A settlement with Miami-Dade's water and sewer department was approved in 2001; further settlements with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the private parties "having some responsibility in this incident" followed in 2002.

The same names — and the same law firm

Why does a 2000 spill at a Miami Beach marina matter to a 2026 vote on Virginia Key? Because the through-line is not a coincidence — it's the same people.

The marina responsible for the spill was controlled by Robert W. Christoph. The Virginia Key bid is led by Robert W. Christoph and Robert W. Christoph, Jr. And the law firm is the same, too: Bilzin Sumberg, counsel to the Virginia Key venture, is the same firm that represented the Christoph marina in the aftermath of the spill.

We know that last part because Bilzin Sumberg put it in writing. In an October 19, 2016 certified letter to Miami-Dade's water and sewer director — written "on behalf of Miami Beach Marina Associates" — attorney Carter N. McDowell of Bilzin Sumberg acknowledged that "back in 2000 a contractor working for the Miami Beach Marina lessee MBMA ruptured a 54" WASA force main." A Miami-Dade County Commission agenda item in May 2017 then ratified county consent for new boat-lift work at that marina, expressly "pursuant to" the settlement the spill had forced.

So the record isn't ancient rumor. It's documented, it's settled, and the very people asking for your YES vote have acknowledged it in their own correspondence.

The record their own bid rivals put on the table

Here is the part that should stop any voter cold.

These spill documents did not surface because of this campaign. They were assembled and placed into the public Virginia Key procurement file years ago — during an earlier round of the RFP for this same waterfront — by attorney Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, as part of a challenge to the RCI bid. In other words: the case that these operators' Biscayne Bay track record should give the City pause was first made inside the bidding process itself, by a competitor for the very same lease.

That competitor's interest and RCI's have since converged. The attorney who compiled the record against trusting RCI with Virginia Key was representing Suntex — RCI's partner in today's bid.

The environmental history didn't change. Only the business arrangement did.

Why it matters on November 3

A 45-to-75-year lease is not a customer relationship you can walk away from. It is a generational handoff of public Biscayne Bay waterfront to a private operator. When you make a handoff that long, the operator's track record on the water is not a footnote — it is the whole question.

In 2021, City of Miami voters already rejected a 75-year lease of this same public waterfront. This deal is back not because the public demanded it, but because litigation over a decade-old procurement pushed it onto the ballot. Now voters are being asked to lock it in — stale terms, out-of-state control, and a lead partner whose Biscayne Bay history is written in county violation notices and settlement agreements.

A NO vote does not close the marinas and does not stop investment in Virginia Key. It stops this deal, and it forces the City to start over — this time with a full, honest accounting of who it's handing the Bay to, and on what terms. Read the record. Then vote NO on November 3.

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Sources

The records below are public documents. They can be reconstructed by date, issuing agency, and subject.

1.) Miami-Dade DERM, Notice of Violation and Order to Cease and Desist, July 11, 2000 — addressed to Robert W. Christoph (Registered Agent, Miami Beach Marina Associates, Ltd.) and others, re: "Unpermitted Coastal Construction at Miami Beach Marina, 300 Alton Road." Finds the June 20, 2000 force-main rupture, discharge of "millions of gallons of untreated human waste" into Biscayne Bay, work performed without a DERM Class I Coastal Construction Permit, and joint-and-several liability under Miami-Dade Code §24-57(g).

2.) Miami Beach Redevelopment Agency, Resolution No. 425-2002 and accompanying RDA memorandum, July 10, 2002 — approving settlement agreements concerning "the Miami Beach Marina Sewage Spill." States the June 20, 2000 rupture "caused the discharge of approximately 25 million gallons of raw sewage into Biscayne Bay, and closed Miami Beach beaches," and calculates City of Miami Beach costs at approximately $260,000.

3.) City of Miami Beach / Miami-Dade County settlement, approved June 27, 2001 (Miami Beach Resolution 2001-24497) — resolving Miami-Dade DERM's findings and actions arising from the incident (referenced in Source 2).

4.) Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department, certified letter to Marin & Marin, Inc., June 26, 2000 — "Damaged 54-Inch Sewage Force Main at Miami Beach Marina," damage date June 20, 2000 (File No. J5742), addressed to the contractor performing the piling work.

5.) Bilzin Sumberg (Carter N. McDowell), certified letter to Lester Sola, Director, Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department, October 19, 2016 — written "on behalf of Miami Beach Marina Associates," acknowledging that "back in 2000 a contractor working for the Miami Beach Marina lessee MBMA ruptured a 54" WASA force main," and referencing the resulting settlement agreement.

6.) Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners, Agenda Item 3(B), May 9, 2017 — resolution ratifying WASD consent to use of a 25-foot easement at Miami Beach Marina for boat-lift installation "pursuant to Settlement Agreement," including the McDowell letter (Source 5) as an exhibit.

7.) Virginia Key Marina RFP submission of RCI Marine / Virginia Key LLC (RFP No. 12-14-077), listing Robert W. Christoph and Robert W. Christoph, Jr. as principals and Bilzin Sumberg (Carter N. McDowell, Albert E. Dotson, Jr.) as counsel — compiled among exhibit documents submitted by Miguel Diaz de la Portilla during the procurement.