State finds money for sewer project

Help is on the way for the Wekiwa Springs, which was in danger of losing funding for a long-awaited sewer project.

“We’ve got our first neighborhood going to sewer,” Commissioner Christine Moore said Friday after learning the Florida Department of Environment Protection will provide $4.3 million which was previously promised but not included in a funding announcement.

Moore feared a loss of state money would force community organizers to flush away a multiyear plan to switch thousands of homes from septic tanks to sewers in the fragile Springs, a treasured watershed plagued by algae blooms blamed partly on residential septic discharge.

Some residents demonstrated Tuesday outside the County Commission meeting in Orlando, calling on the governor’s help.

DEP spokeswoman Dee Ann Miller said in an email Friday, “A final decision was made on that project review and funding has been identified.” She did not immediately provide more details. It also was unclear whether Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis interceded.

Construction on Phase 1 of the conversion will likely begin in June in Sweetwater West and Wekiwa Highlands and cost about $10 million to connect 216 homes to sewers. Home-owners would be on the hook for about $6,000 per home over 10 years.

“This is good news for us,” said Lisa Lochridge, a Wekiwa-area resident most of her life in homes with septic systems. “It’s encouraging to see the DeSantis administration is making good on its pledge to improve the quality of Florida’s precious springs.”

Since her election in 2018, Moore has won over reluctant property-owners in 17 neighborhoods on the notion they would not have to shoulder the whole bill — estimated at $123 million — because the state, Orange County and St. Johns River Water Management District pledged to kick in as much as 90% of the money needed to cut pollutants flowing from septic systems into the Springs.

She said residents realized newer and more efficient septic systems would cost them more but protect the Springs less.

The17 neighborhoods closest to the Springs account for about 2,050 of the 18,000 homes in the area with septic systems.

“We’ve got to chew this elephant one bite at a time,” said Bob Samson, whose spouse, Andrea Samson, publishes The Sludge Report, a blog about the septic issue, which has been debated for years in the neighborhoods in northwest Orange County.

While the first phase is small, home-owners overall are “very much in tune with supporting clean Springs,” he said.

State authorities blame septic tanks for about 30% of the nitrogen pollution flowing into the Springs.

In September at Weeki Wachee Springs State Park, most famous for its mermaid shows in crystalclear water, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis boasted that his administration’s two-year investment of $150 million in the state’s springs was the largest in Florida’s history.

DeSantis said he considers restoring and protecting water quality a priority in Florida.