$5.7 million sewer upgrade project moves forward

Posted On: April 7, 2020

With funding in place, a major sewer upgrade that will provide for a higher level of treatment, improved water quality and the decommissioning of a county wastewater plant in Deltona is ready to move forward. On Tuesday, the Volusia County Council awarded a $5.7 million construction management contract for the project that centers on construction of a new pipeline to redirect sewage from a county wastewater plant in Deltona to another county treatment facility in DeBary.

Because it’s all part of an overall plan to improve water quality, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the St. Johns River Water Management District have agreed to kick in half the cost of the project – about $2.9 million.

“They’ve been amazing partners throughout this entire process,” Mike Ulrich, the county’s director of water resources and utilities, said of the two state agencies.

The project entails installation of a high-capacity lift station at the county’s Deltona North wastewater reclamation facility and construction of approximately three miles of sewer pipe connecting to existing infrastructure leading to the Southwest Regional water reclamation facility in DeBary. The county has made major investments in the DeBary plant over the last several years to increase its capacity and upgrade its treatment process. Once the project is complete, the wastewater that had been going to the Deltona facility will instead be piped to the DeBary site for treatment and the Deltona plant will be shut down. The county decommissioned another one of its wastewater plants in the Orange City area several years ago.

By upgrading wastewater treatment and consolidating county-operated treatment plants in Southwest Volusia from three to one, the net effect will be a significant nutrient reduction in the 130-square-mile Blue Spring springshed.

“Upon completion of this project, the county’s multi-stage strategy will have resulted in annual reductions of over 40,000 pounds of nitrogen loading into the springshed,” Ulrich told council members. “That’s over 20 tons per-year reduction.”

Tuesday’s contract was awarded to Wharton-Smith, Inc. of Sanford. The work is expected to take approximately 14 months to complete.