Some utilities struggle to meet the conditions of a consent decree. Others use it as a baseline. The Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department took the $1.6 billion in improvements outlined in its consent decree and added nearly $12 billion in utility-wide upgrades.Equipped with a comprehensive master plan, the Water and Sewer Department is already into year four of its $13.5 billion capital improvement program — one of the largest among U.S. water and wastewater utilities. Some 775 projects, representing $1.1 billion in department assets, have been completed. Another 861 are in the planning or construction phase.They range from water and
