Hi All:
A meeting of the BCC was recently held to discuss the next steps in the plans of the county to replace septic with sewers (S2S). Cape Haze was identified as the next candidate for this and it appears that the County Commissioners (BCC) are eager to move this along. I suspect part of this motivation is to allow for more growth and building as the state looks favorably on municipalities and counties with a decreasing number of septic systems. However, as a result of some new changes to the Comp Plan, I suspect there will be less drive for development in West County. Part of this is also driven by a desire for cleaner water.
I spoke today with Dave Watson, who was appointed new head of CCU. He advised me that they are now in the preliminary stages of analysis for Cape Haze and will be working up the numbers for a presentation to the BCC in September. They are relying on the 2016-17 Master Sewer Plan (MSP) as their guide for prioritization and we are in the lead for the next round of sewers. There was supposed to be some tests and a new MSP but no word on that yet. I asked him about costs. He estimated $11,500 per ERU, same as El Jobean. This could be payable over 20 years at about $65 per month. The system would be a vacuum system.
I expressed the following:
1. We are greatly concerned about our trees. He is aware of that and its an issue.
2. Although we are on the water there is no evidence we pollute.
3. We have a low population density, lowest when the water table is highest.
4. We strongly share the commitment to clean water and if I found we were a polluter I’d push for S2S asap.
5. We were told that S2S would tie into water pipe replacement. This should be done in tandem.
6. The MSP is deeply flawed
I will follow up with him with a longer more detailed letter. However, I am going to be unable to do much for the next 6-8 weeks for medical reasons. Thus, we may need to have one or more of you lease with CCU on this issue. I will also try to get to the Commissioners before I am out. But again one or more of you may want to work on this as well.
Good news is that the FL PSC denied Environmental Utilities/Jack Boyer’s request for S2S on the barrier islands. So the risk there is lower.
Questions?
Thanks,
Bill Dahms