FDEP rejects Gulf Breeze's initial penalty proposal for water contamination error

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has rejected part of Gulf Breeze's initial in-kind penalty project proposal for the cross-connection error that contaminated drinking water at several hundred homes in the city's Soundside Drive neighborhood late last year.

In March, the Gulf Breeze City Council authorized the recommended in-kind penalty projects in lieu of paying the $1 million penalty. At the time, they chose a lift station in the Bergren Road area and a septic-to-sewer conversion project in the Woodlawn Beach area. The projects would have cost about $750,000 and $795,000, respectively, totaling over $1.5 million.

FDEP recently notified the city that the sub-master lift station at Bergren Road was not an acceptable in-kind project but gave the OK to the septic conversion proposals.

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On Monday, the council accepted a revised set of in-kind projects, including a Woodlawn Beach septic-to-sewer conversion for about $1.1 million and two septic tank elimination programs totaling about $400,000.

"This is where sewer is available (and where) there is no connection. And so, we did share that with (FDEP) to make sure that they knew that these are not currently in any plan," said Gulf Breeze City Manager Samantha Abell of the septic elimination projects.

One Gulf Breeze resident, Jim Doyle, awaited community residents and City Council members outside Gulf Breeze City Hall before the Monday meeting, handing out a prepared memo and voicing his disapproval of the project proposals.

Doyle told the News Journal he preferred the proposal benefit a larger portion of the local community. He offered, instead, items such as a municipal swimming pool, a kayak park and a boardwalk.

The city council received the recommendation of the original in-kind penalty projects earlier this year from the Gulf Breeze Regional Water System Board. Items such as conservation protections for land north of U.S. 98 and the demolition of the old Gulf Breeze wastewater treatment facility were considered but not chosen for prioritization.

An employee with Brown Construction mistakenly connected a sewer line with a water main at a new house at 5000 Soundside Drive on April 1, 2021. The cross-connection went unnoticed until utility service was turned on at the house in late September.

Shortly after that, Midway Water System started to receive reports of low water pressure and clogged faucets, leading the utility to flush lines and conduct sampling until the error was ultimately discovered and corrected Oct. 18, 2021. For about three weeks, sewage-contaminated water ran through about 340 homes on Soundside Drive.

In January, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection issued draft consent orders for Gulf Breeze, Midway Water System and Brown Construction of Northwest Florida proposing more than $3.2 million in penalties for the cross-connection.

Brown was hit with about $2 million of the assessed penalties, Gulf Breeze with $1 million and Midway with $220,000.

Midway and Gulf Breeze had the option to implement an in-kind penalty project in lieu of paying the penalty. The value of an in-kind project must total one and a half of the value of the proposed penalty, meaning for Midway it had to total at least $330,000 and for Gulf Breeze that value was $1.5 million.

FDEP accepted Midway Water System's proposed in-kind penalty projects in February.

On Gulf Breeze's side of things, the decision to move forward with in-kind project proposals was supported by all council members except for JB Schluter.

The city's Director of Public Works Thomas Lambert said he expects to get a response from FDEP on the acceptance or rejection of the new projects within the month.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Gulf Breeze will submit new penalty projects for role in sewage error