Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
ZEPHYRHILLS - The results of a yearlong study came in Monday, and City Council members learned it will cost up to $10-million for improvements to the city's sewage plant to meet the demands of growth.
"This is really important," City Council President Lance Smith said. "This is something we have really got to push for as hard as we can."
Jody Barksdale, an engineer with the Montgomery Watson Harza consultant group, said the city will be at 75 percent of its sewage capacity by 2006, a magic number that would mean state Department of Environmental Protection involvement and force the city's hand.
Left unattended, the city would exceed its capacity in less than 10 years, he said.
To handle the increased needs, Barksdale's firm recommended expanding virtually every component of the city sewage treatment plant just south of the municipal airport. Adding 1.75-million gallons per day of capacity to the 2.25-million-gallon-per-day plant would take care of the city's needs for the next 20 years, he said.
If council members go along with the proposal, construction could be completed by June 2006 at a cost of $8.2-million to $10.2-million.
City Manager Steve Spina said he could include some preliminary planning and design dollars in the budget for the coming fiscal year as he puts the budget together this summer.