Everglades City makes plans to fix wastewater treatment plant, end dispute with state

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Everglades City has hired an engineering firm to restore and reconstruct its failing wastewater treatment plant’s collection system and, eventually, replace the plant itself.

The plant pumped inadequately treated liquid sewage — hundreds of thousands of gallons of it — into nearby mangroves in late March and early April, according to state inspectors.

City and Florida Department of Environmental Protection officials met early this month in mediation over a lawsuit regarding the plant. They agreed to a timeline that requires the city to have permits in place by February to start work on restoring and improving the plant’s collection system, said Jessica Boyd, DEP spokeswoman.

“The target completion for collection system restoration is June 2017, before the beginning of the wet season,” Boyd said.

The city also has put together a two-year timeline to complete the dozen other repairs and upgrades DEP says are needed for the rest of the plant.

Everglades City needs to file applications to start work on repairing its treatment systems by June, Boyd said.

Last spring, the DEP asked a judge to issue an injunction to force the city to make fixes at the plant to stop discharges.

The city also had to haul off wastewater from an overflowing percolation pond, which intermittingly leaked into mangroves for several weeks.

In March, the DEP asked Collier County to consider taking over the plant or to help run it.

But commissioners, following the advice of the county manager and attorney, decided against getting involved.

The county estimated it would cost $30 million to $55 million to bring the wastewater system up to standard.

Everglades City Mayor Sammy Hamilton said he thinks it will cost the city less than $20 million to replace the plant.

The DEP has been trying to get Everglades City, which is just outside the perimeter of Everglades National Park, to replace its treatment plant for years.

The state agency sued the city in November 2015, saying officials had failed to make 12 of the 24 necessary repairs and replacements they agreed to make in a previous lawsuit.

The city could face crippling fines, up to $1,000 for each day it doesn't meet a series of deadlines dating to 2013 for replacing pipes and parts, and designing plans for a complete replacement of the treatment plant.

The city also operated the treatment plant without a permit from July 5 to March 7, a violation that could result in fines of $10,000 a day, according to the lawsuit.

Inspectors found the city pumping 100 gallons to 200 gallons a minute of liquid sewage into the mangroves March 21 and 22. The discharge continued until March 25.

Boyd said the discharge never threatened the health of the 400 or so residents in Everglades City.

There haven’t been any discharges of inadequately treated sewage since April, Boyd said.

“There was an event in July that caused the percolation ponds to exceed capacity," she said, "but the city’s hauling contractor was able to prevent discharge by hauling the excess treated flows to an appropriate wastewater treatment facility in Hendry County."