One way to help stop harmful algae and invasive weeds from mucking up the ailing Wekiwa and Gemini springs is by digging up septic tanks and replacing them with sewer connections.
That’s the goal officials in Seminole County have as they launched plans this week to convert thousands of homes with septic tanks near the delicate Wekiva River and Gemini Springs to sewer systems as a way of ridding the nitrogen and phosphorus that has long polluted the water bodies.
“We’re quite happy about it,” said Grey Wilson, board member of the nonprofit Friends of the Wekiva, regarding the county’s move. “It’s much better, from an environmental standpoint, that water is treated through a sewer system than a septic tank.”
Because plans are still in the early stages, county officials don’t know the cost of such a massive project, when work would begin, whether all homeowners with septic tanks would be required to make the switch and how much they would have to pay.
“We’re nowhere near that yet,” Kim Ornberg, Seminole’s environmental services director, said after a presentation on the issue Tuesday to county commissioners. “We’re still going through analysis.”
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Commissioners agreed to apply for a $20 million grant from the St. Johns River Water Management District to help pay for the first phase.
Of the nearly 26,000 septic tanks across the county, about 6,300 are around the Wekiwa Springs Basin in southwest Seminole and in the Gemini Springs Basin in the northwest quadrant near Volusia County.
According to a 2016 state law, the county would have until 2036 to connect septic systems to sewer lines or have homeowners upgrade septic tanks to release fewer nutrients into the springs areas. Septic tanks within Seminole’s rural boundary on the east side of the county would not be impacted because those are outside the springs basins.
A septic tank is a buried container that holds wastewater and allows solids to settle to the bottom and decompose. The liquid — which contains high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus and serves as high-nutrient food for invasive plants — is then drained into the ground and much of it eventually flows underground into the springs, leading to algal blooms and fish kills, according to Seminole officials and state biologists. Old and leaking septic tanks are harmful with every toilet flush, according to biologists.
“Septic tanks are a major contributor to nutrient pollution,” said Robert Reiss, of CHA Consulting hired by Seminole for the project.
Orange County kicked off its septic-to-sewer conversion project about five years ago in 20 neighborhoods near Wekiwa Springs.
Orange homeowners were given a choice: Connect to the nearby sewer system or upgrade to a top-of-the line septic system that would cost them tens of thousands of dollars.
At an estimated cost of $145 million, today the Orange County project is nowhere near completion, and some residents have complained of torn-up yards, sidewalks and roads.
Reiss said a new, upgraded septic tank would reduce harmful pollutants by 65% rather than entirely as with connecting to a sewer system.
“You would still have nutrients going out into the environment, even though it’s a much better system” than using an old septic tank, he said.
Lake County also plans the septic-to-sewer conversion on the east side of that county.
Jerry Blackburn, president of the Bridgewater Community Association within the upscale Heathrow neighborhood just east of Wekiva River, said converting the 128 older homes from septic to sewer “would be an enormous investment” for residents.
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“I’d say: What am I getting for it? And for how much would it cost me?” he said.
But Blackburn noted that even though hooking up to a sewer system comes with a monthly bill, homeowners would not be saddled with expensive costs to unclog or maintain a septic tank.
Commissioner Lee Constantine, a former state legislator who championed a 2010 law that established mandatory inspections of septic tanks to protect Florida’s endangered springs, voiced support for the county’s septic-to-sewer project. That law has since been rolled back.
“The monthly [sewer] bill will not only increase the value of the property, but the environmental importance is immeasurable and incalculable,” Lee said. “It’s a very worthwhile program. Yes, it’s going to cost … But in the long run it will save the environment of Florida a great deal more.”
County officials said they plan a more detailed presentation on the septic-to-sewer project to commissioners in October and to conduct community meetings.
mcomas@orlandosentinel.com
