Brooksville council declares emergency with sanitary sewer system

May 02, 2023

The lift station at 19289 Cortez Blvd. in Brooksville is shown on Oct. 18.

BROOKSVILLE — The city's sanitary sewer collections and treatment system is on the verge of a "catastrophic" failure, Public Works Director Paul Booth warned the city council on Oct. 17.

He and City Manager Ron Snowberger asked for approval of an emergency declaration so the city can bypass normal bid processes to get contractors to work on repairs as soon as possible, and asked for an allocation of up to $500,000 from the $8 million Enterprise Reserve Fund to pay for "necessary emergency repairs" to the system.

The council approved the measure on a unanimous roll call vote.

Using the regular bid process for getting the work done would take too long, Booth said. It would take months to put out bids, get bids from contractors, decide who should do the work and get the work started.

The city is looking at the possibility of another major failure in as little as three months, Booth said.

"We simply do not have the time to make these repairs and upgrades through our normal purchasing process," Booth wrote in a report to the city.

There has been a series of failures in the system in recent months, including pump failures at lift stations, sewage spills and "a sludge pump blew up last week," Booth said.

The publicity from these events reflects poorly on the city and its infrastructure. Indeed, Brooksville's aging infrastructure — water system, sewer system and roads — has been an issue in the ongoing city council election campaign.

Quick "Band-Aid" repairs that have been used in the past cannot continue, Booth said.

"We’ve reached the point that we are getting near critical failures," he said, noting that while a lift station was repaired with two new pumps, the main suction pipes going into the main wet well are very old and have tiny holes in them, causing air to enter the system.

"We’ve been fortunate that we can keep that system running," he said, predicting another failure in the next few months.

Main water plant

Problems at the William Smith Treatment Plant have been handled with similar "Band-Aid" repairs, and the system is now out of compliance with state standards, Booth wrote in his report. Numerous components need to be replaced.

One example of the hazards of making repairs like this is the example of the variable frequency drives, which control the amount of power going to electric motors that controls the speed at which pumps run. There are six of them, and they all need to be replaced, plus they need two more as replacements.

As these drives have failed, they have been replaced with a variety of brands of drives — depending on cost — so they are now mismatched, and the city is dependent on outside vendors to program the drives. They run on different operating systems, Booth said, and the programmable controller also needs to be replaced.

Another problem is the plant's processing tanks. Because there is no filter at the start of the system to suck out debris, Booth said that the tanks have debris at the bottom and need to be cleaned.

With the city's growth, including new multifamily housing approved at Monday's meeting, they need more capacity, Booth said. He doesn't see expanding the William Smith plant as a viable option and said it would be better to build a new plant to service the new growth in the city, and do the necessary maintenance on the William Smith plant to get it back to full operation.

"We need to get our existing plant back up and in shape, now," Booth said.

Doing nothing or doing work on the system as in the past means the city could even violate permit and environmental regulations.

Bid worries

Mayor Pat Brayton said he was concerned about waiving the bid process and didn't want to spend all of the $8 million in the reserve fund.

Nonetheless, "I’m glad to see something finally being done," he said.

Council Member Betty Erhard said she thought it was long overdue.

"I’ve been complaining about our infrastructure for a long time," but then asked why the city doesn't use the federal American Rescue Plan Act funds instead of its own money.

Snowberger said some ARPA funds are being used for wastewater projects.

Council Member Robert Battista asked Booth if anyone had told him about these problems at the staff or administrative level.

"We’ve never turned down a utilities’ request to buy things. I don't remember a project we said no on," he said. "All of these things, somebody must have been able to tell you, ‘These are the problems we have.’"

Snowberger said the issues have been going on for years, and with the personnel turnover in city government sometimes plans fell through the cracks.

Booth said the new approach might cause trouble for contractors so the city has to be upfront about how the money is spent, keeping contractors and the public informed.

Battista noted that being open about it would be good public relations, and also help keep the city out of court.

The main message is this, Booth said: "The system is in a dire need of repair."

Good Neighbor Trail

The council got some more bad news. Troubles with contractors and bids have put the city's Community Redevelopment Agency in hot water over utility work that needs to be done.

Booth, the director of Public Works, said he wanted the bid process waived so the CRA can enter direct negotiations over the relocation of water lines.

Right now they’re in violation and face liquidated damages, but those haven't been assessed yet.

Snowberger said the job was out for bid several times, but the bids came in too high.

"Due to inflation and labor costs, we can no longer get the rate we had hoped to get," he said. They’re negotiating to get the rate for the work "within reason."

Right now, the contractor is not delayed so the city is not having to pay penalties, Booth said, but that could change.

In other news

Varsity volleyball players at Garrett Middle School went undefeated this season and are district champions.

• Varsity volleyball players at Garrett Middle School went undefeated this season and are district champions. They received certificates at the meeting, and a round of applause.

• The city got an update on its ARPA projects. It's only spent about $130,000 of the $4.2 million it received, but it's further along in its process than other cities, and new projects will be done and paid for soon. The two projects were $11,000 for playground fence equipment and premium pay for essential employees of $118,526.94. Another check for East Avenue drainage has been issued.

• The council voted 4-1, with Erhard dissenting, to approve with conditions the second reading of a rezoning agreement after mediation for land at Cortez Boulevard and Horse Lake Road. The site is approved for up to 300 multifamily units and commercial space.

• The council also voted 4-1, with Vice Mayor Blake Bell dissenting, to accept the first reading of a new stormwater ordinance, with the second reading set for Nov. 7.

"I’m glad to see there's nothing in here about pressure washing," Brayton said. Booth said the main effort is to regulate what construction sites are doing about keeping dirt and silt from getting onto roads and clogging the wastewater system.

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