Line breaks and pump station overflows witnessed within Islamorada’s wastewater collection system the last four years led state officials to order several corrective measures and impose fines.
An Oct. 15 letter and report from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to Village Manager Ron Saunders states the village’s wastewater collection system experienced six sanitary sewer overflows and discharges from May 2021 to as recent as last March. The incidents were in violation of state regulations which prohibit sewage, wastewater or biosolids from being disposed of without treatment.
In addition, DEP said the wastewater system failed to prepare, maintain or update the required operation and maintenance manual, including an emergency response plan. Together, the violations led to $11,320 in fines and various corrective actions the village must undertake to mitigate further breaks and spills.
Just after village officials received the order on Oct. 15, a fitting broke on a wastewater valve on the Old Highway. It led 3,000 gallons of untreated wastewater to leak underground. The incident at 90391 Old Highway was immediately reported to DEP, said Saunders.
Completed in 2016, the village’s wastewater system is composed of several vacuum pump stations from Lower Matecumbe to upper Plantation Key. Some areas are served with a low-pressure force main collection system.
Once collected, all effluent is transported via force main to the Key Largo Wastewater Treatment District’s (KLWTD) plant at MM 100.3 for treatment and disposal. Islamorada is KLWTD’s largest customer with tens of millions of gallons of wastewater pumped to the plant every month.
Reynolds Water Islamorada, now Reynolds Construction, once operated the collection and transmission system for the village through a contractor agreement. In March 2018, the village moved wastewater operations and maintenance services in-house. The village said the decision to transition operations was not due to the performance of the service provider. Rather, the move was made in an effort to achieve future cost-savings for Islamorada residents.
On May 3, 2021, the village’s pump station on Gardenia Street experienced an overflow of 10,000 gallons of untreated wastewater. A similar incident at the pump station occurred July 23, 2022, as 400,000 gallons of untreated wastewater overflowed.
And last March, an overflow of 10,000 gallons of untreated wastewater occurred at the Gardenia Street pump station. Village officials said the pump station was undergoing cleaning as required to properly maintain the system and the equipment. During the process, a pump intake line became clogged which restricted the flow.
Village said staff promptly responded and restored the pump to full operation. The overflow was immediately stopped and all effluent remained onsite and was cleaned up as required, the village said. The cleanup lasted about two weeks.
According to the village, the clog in the line was caused by excessive “rags,” or non-flushable items.
Per DEP’s order, the village received a permit on Dec. 12, 2023 to replace the existing North Plantation Key pump station on Gardenia Street with an in-line booster pump station. The village says this project would resolve the issues seen at the current facility.
Per DEP, the permit did not provide a set completion schedule. DEP’s order states the new in-line booster pump station must be fully constructed and complete no later than Dec. 31, 2027. Within 60 days of the Oct. 15 order, the village must provide DEP with a detailed plan to complete and commission the in-line booster pump station.
In addition to the overflows, the village’s wastewater system experienced three separate line breaks at MM 92.3 and near Burton Drive in Tavernier between June 2023 and September 2024. Together, the breaks resulted in 10,000 gallons of sewage to spill out. A smelly situation saw crews working around the clock to fix the breaks. The ruptures and subsequent repair work brought traffic congestion to the area for hours.
Wastewater line breaks near MM 92 were caused by “hammering,” which occurs when there’s a sudden change in pressure.
Past discussions between the village and KLWTD over improvements to address the issues at North Plantation Key pump station and line breaks haven’t yielded agreement among the entities’ engineers. KLWTD’s engineers in Weiler Engineering Corporation (WEC), in a Sept. 16 letter, say the village can make immediate wastewater improvements to prevent recurring issues, including repairing and coating the existing equalization tank, or a storage tank in wastewater treatment to buffer and stabilize the inconsistent flow of incoming wastewater, and reducing the transient pressure waves during pump shut-down. In the long term, WEC said, the village should build a new, property designed equalization tank.
WEC’s letter included the pump station’s existing poor condition as outlined by the village’s engineering consultant CHA. Not only are sewage pumps plugging due to rags, but the existing equalization tank, which is a repurposed concrete wastewater treatment plant, is in poor structural condition and will likely fail in the future.
WEC also recommends replacing the 18-inch PVC in the force main from the North Plantation Key pump station to the Key Largo wastewater treatment plant in areas where breaks have occurred.
As for Islamorada engineers in Wade Trim, they believe an in-line booster pump station reflects a balance of technical, operational and community considerations. In an Oct. 5 letter responding to Weiler Engineering Corporation’s recommendation, Wade Trim says the booster station eliminates odor impacts, improves operational reliability and reduces long-term capital and operation and management costs while continuing to meet the village’s obligations under the consent decree and interlocal agreement.
A letter from Peter Rosasco, KLWTD general manager, to the village on Sept. 24 states the KLWTD doesn’t believe its concerns were “satisfactorily addressed” to give the district reasonable assurance that the in-line booster pump system will not harm operations.
“The district has significant concerns that the proposed in-line booster pump system will create new problems for both Islamorada and KLWTD, while failing to resolve the existing issues,” he wrote.
Several meetings were held among Saunders, Rosasco and engineering firms to improve communication and coordination in hopes to reach agreement on needed improvements for the village’s wastewater system. An agreement is especially crucial now that a deadline for completed improvements is stated in DEP’s order to the village.
