County secures $5.5 million grant to help fund Mosquito Lagoon water quality improvement project

Once completed, the planned upgrade of the county's southeast Volusia wastewater treatment plant and doubling of its capacity will improve the environmental water quality in the Mosquito Lagoon. On Tuesday, the Volusia County Council inked an agreement with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for a big chunk of the funding – $5.5 million – to help pay for the project.

Designated an Outstanding Florida Water, the Mosquito Lagoon is suffering from high nutrient loads that are believed to contribute to algal blooms that are harmful to the aquatic ecosystem. For that reason, reducing nutrient loads is a key focus of the ongoing efforts to improve water quality in the lagoon. And studies show that effluent from septic systems is a significant cause of the overall excess nutrient problem.

Located in Oak Hill, the southeast region plant has a current daily treatment capacity of 600,000 gallons. The plan is to upgrade the plant to a biological nutrient removal process in order to achieve advanced wastewater treatment standards and double its capacity, to 1.2 million gallons per day in order to accommodate the added flow that will result from future population growth and the conversion of septic systems.

The county and state have allocated about $12 million to the project, and it should take approximately three years to design and construct. The result will be a significant reduction of nitrogen and phosphorous going into the Mosquito Lagoon, and that in turn will help preserve the lagoon's ecosystem and natural habitat. The County Council unanimously approved a grant agreement on Tuesday with DEP for $5.5 million of the cost. Federal COVID-19 relief funds freed up money in the County budget to cover the rest of the project expenses.

The design work is scheduled to begin in the next few months.

"I believe Volusia County is taking the lead," said Volusia County Chair Jeff Brower. "We are upgrading all of our plants. We are working and spending millions of dollars on stormwater runoff, and I think it's important that the public know that, yes, this is state-required, but county staff and past county councils were way ahead of the curve on this one."

And there was more good news on Tuesday for the Mosquito Lagoon. The Council awarded a $1,855,770 contract to Carr & Collier, Inc. of Okahumpka, FL to retrofit an existing stormwater facility in Southeast Volusia in order to provide an additional level of treatment to rain water before it flows into the Ariel Canal on its way to the Mosquito Lagoon. The Ariel Canal drains stormwater runoff from an approximately 2-square-mile basin that includes portions of unincorporated Volusia County, the City of Edgewater and the City of Oak Hill. The project will result in the stormwater being diverted into a wet detention pond for additional treatment, which will significantly reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous that ends up in the lagoon. Through cost-share agreements, DEP is paying $900,000 of the cost for the project and the St. Johns River Water Management District is paying $450,000.