Everglades City's troubled sewage treatment plant to be replaced after years of neglect

Plans to replace Everglades City’s troubled sewage treatment plant are moving forward with funding from the state after years of neglect that threatened water quality in Everglades National Park. 

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed in June the state's appropriations bill, which included $4.3 million to replace the treatment plant that has a history of spills and maintenance issues.  

“We've begun to fix the problem,” said Everglades City Mayor Howie Grimm. “This is only the beginning of all the stuff we are going to have to do.” 

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The city’s sewage treatment plant is way beyond its life expectancy, which is why the funding to replace it was crucial, Grimm said.  

"The wastewater treatment plant was bought used from a housing development in Naples and moved to Everglades City in the 1980s,” Grimm said. “We didn't start with a new plant, we started with a used plant. That's where we are at now.”  

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Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, pushed for the funding to be included in the state’s budget. A funding request from the senator stated the treatment plant is at the end of its useful life, damaged, malfunctioning and in poor condition.  

“The lack of redundancy, advanced level of corrosion, undersized and inoperative equipment could at any moment result in a complete failure of wastewater treatment capability and potential wastewater spill,” the funding request reads. “The facility needs a complete replacement of all systems to guarantee compliance.” 

The city has already hired an engineering firm for planning and permitting for the new plant, Grimm said.  

The current plant will be demolished, and the new plant will be built in its place at the same site. Construction should begin late next summer, Grimm said.   

Grimm said he is hoping construction on the new plant will take less than a year. 

“For me, it's to protect our Everglades,” Passidomo said. “If it (the sewage treatment plant) fails, look where the wastewater would go. It would go right into the Everglades.”  

Everglades City plant's troubled history  

The wastewater treatment plant has a long history of violations with state regulators.  

The need for replacement of the plant was acknowledged by then-Mayor Sammy Hamilton Jr. in 2016 after state inspectors found that the city’s sewage plant had pumped hundreds of thousands of gallons of inadequately treated liquid sewage into nearby mangroves.  

After nearly 22 years in the position, Hamilton resigned as mayor in 2017 when troubles surfaced over the way he handled problems with the treatment plant. 

City Council members said Hamilton downplayed the extent of the problems at the plant and then exacerbated them by cutting off communication between the city and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.  

Even before the former mayor’s resignation, in March 2016 the DEP asked Collier County to consider taking over the plant. Commissioners decided against getting involved because of the estimated cost of bringing the sewage treatment system up to standard.  

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In the summer of 2017, Everglades City was hit hard by Hurricane Irma which created more issues at the plant.   

The plant experienced wastewater spills. While loss of power from the hurricane was the predominant factor in those spills, the aging infrastructure and extreme rain also contributed, according to the DEP.  

The following year, the DEP and the city reached a consent final judgment in which the DEP outlined several actions the city had to take over the coming years to address problems with the treatment plant and build a new one. 

The judgment settled a 2015 lawsuit over problems at the sewage plant that was filed by the DEP. It required the city to build the new treatment facility by July 24, 2023. 

State regulators found more violations at the treatment plant during inspections in 2019.  

Over the course of two inspections in 2019, the DEP discovered that the sewage plant had holes in a tank, was missing “critical” spare parts and had hundreds of gallons of raw wastewater discharged. 

An inspection done last month revealed revealed the wastewater treatment plant is discharging effluent that continues to be out of compliance for total nitrogen and phosphorous, according to the DEP.  

The city’s wastewater collection system continues to be influenced by tide and pump failures and its plant infrastructure is at or beyond its life of service, according to the DEP.

“There's a long history of problems with the treatment plant that predated the current (city) administration. There was a lack of maintenance, they never charged enough for the services,” Passidomo said. “There was just one problem after another.” 

DEP is hopeful that with the money from the state budget, Everglades City will expedite construction of the new plant to meet the July 2023 deadline, according to a statement from the department.  

The city will not be off the hook for past wrongdoings, according to the DEP. 

"Fulfillment of this legal obligation (construction of the new facility) does not absolve the city of its previous violations and contributions to water quality degradation in the region, and the department remains committed to holding them accountable for these obligations as well," a statement from the DEP reads. 

Moving forward 

Despite past issues with the plant and former mayor, Everglades City is moving in the right direction, Passidomo said. 

“There were people who said Everglades City screwed up so they shouldn't get the funding to fix it from the state,” Passidomo said. “Well, we have a new (city) administration who acknowledged the previous (city) administration's errors. They've come a long way and have been working with DEP and they are doing the best they can.” 

Grimm, a city councilman at the time, was appointed interim mayor when Hamilton resigned in 2017. Grimm was elected mayor with 74% of the vote in November 2017.  

“Our main focus right now is to get the new wastewater treatment plant built then we're going to have to work on the collection system within Everglades City itself,” Grimm said.

The collection system has been worn down by saltwater, he said. 

Moving forward, the city has plans to reach out to residents and businesses in surrounding areas in an effort to get them off septic tanks and connected to the city’s wastewater treatment system, Grimm said.  

This will include residences and businesses on Chokoloskee and Plantation Islands, Grimm said.   

By the end of 2022, Big Cypress National Preserve will be hooked up to the city’s wastewater treatment plant, he said.

"All this is depending on funding. There's nothing etched in stone,” Grimm said. “But that would give us the availability to get everybody off septic from all the surrounding areas. It can't do anything but help the water quality in the area.” 

Zach Lombardo, an attorney who assisted in getting funds from the state to replace the sewage treatment plant, said the city will continue to pursue funds to provide wastewater treatment to surrounding areas.  

The city also has plans to apply for federal grants to make repairs to the wastewater collection system, Lombardo said.  

“Part of the reason it was difficult to get funding out of the gate was there was not enough trust that the city was going to be a proper steward of this infrastructure,” Lombardo said. “What I'm most proud of the city for and all the city staff is that they have spent years just building up trust.”

In its statement, the DEP agreed that new leadership in Everglades City has worked to build trust and move in the right direction. 

"While the city struggles to maintain the best outcomes from an outdated facility, the new city leadership has been working steadily and earnestly to not only meet the conditions of the Consent Final Judgment, but to enhance water quality regionally," the statement from the DEP reads.  

Once the new plant is built, it will alleviate some financial stress on the city by eliminating the cost of unexpected repairs popping up all the time at the plant, Grimm said.  

"It can't do anything but help the environment,” Grimm said. “Everybody in this town, one way or another, works on the water.”