At this Thursday’s Zoning Board meeting there was another vote. This one with strong opinions on both sides of the issue and a good bit of commentary and I’m sure the local press will add their two cents this week.
The issue was a Conditional Use request by Holley Navarre Water Utility to allow the disposal of treated effluent water through a rapid infiltration system or R.I.B.
HNWS is currently using all available capacity to disperse treated waste water. They have plenty of capacity to add customers and treat the waste water generated. There is one problem, they have no where to put the treated waste water generated by these new sewer hook ups.
The site the utility purchased a decade ago will provide reserve capacity until the Gulf Breeze Bergren Road site, Eglin Site or another site can be brought online.
The Navarre site will be operational in 9 months, the Bergren Road site was estimated to take 18 months and the Eglin Site will take a minimum of three years.
It was highly unlikely DEP would allow HNWS to exceed its permit capacity for what would likely be two more years.
The resulting moratorium on all new sewer hookups was and is a real possibility and would have devastating impacts to our economy. Even so, I’m not going to knowingly make policy decisions that would contribute to further degradation of one of our most precious resources. If the science and facts showed that by approving the conditional use request to allow the disposal of treated effluent via this R I B system at this specific location was going to lead to additional declines in water quality for the SRSound, I would not have voted to approve it. Period.
When learning of this request for the first time, my concerns were flooding, impact on water quality, what is future plan for effluent disposal and what happens to our economy if/when this request is denied.
As the April Zoning Board meeting got closer, two things became clear to me. First, there were many who shared the same concerns and second, these concerns would not be answered in time for me to be comfortable voting on the issue in April. Because of this, I asked for the item to be tabled until the May meeting to allow an additional 30 days to get answers.
During this time, I met with the HNWS Board of Directors, toured the current R.I.B. system and had discussions with Water Board President Bien May, Navarre Beach Utility Director Roger Blaylock, City of Gulf Breeze Mayor Dannheisser and City Administrator Buzz Eddy. I requested and read the 2008 SRC study to evaluate options for future effluent disposal which included the Williams Creek site.
After this due diligence was complete and the emotion was separated from the facts related to this request, this became a much easier policy decision. Now it’s up to the local water utility to operate with integrity and move forward as if this request was denied and expeditiously add new capacity
Flooding- If the Williams Creek site had all 255,000 daily gallons dumped at one time ,which it will not, the result would be at worst a rise in the depth of the creek by one 16th of an inch.
Water Quality-
This RIB system is a cluster of 15 holding ponds that will receive NO MORE THAN 255,000 gallons of treated effluent per day at the Williams Creek site, NOT the 500,000 gallons per day local and state funded environmental activists have stated.
The 255,000 gallons of water is dispersed into a basin or “holding pond” over a 24 hour period. Each day, the already treated effluent is dispersed into a different basin on 12 upland acres of this almost 40 acre site rotating the basins used each day. The 12 acres being used to create these basins IS NOT LOCATED IN WETLANDS but is located in the northern ALL uplands portion of the property.
The Williams Creek RIB site will receive treated effluent and THEN be filtered AGAIN through the the rapid infiltration basin system. The remaining already treated effluent, with a 12% max nitrogen rate compared to a 10% max nitrogen rate at SRC owned NB utility, that does not evaporate will then filter into the ground.
The subdivision immediately closest to and located within the Williams Creek wetlands area is causing more damage to the Santa Rosa sound then the proposed RIB facility could ever do and there is NO data or evidence to support the Williams Creek facility would do any damage at all to harm water quality in our sound.
The liberal environmental activists have thrown out some scary data when talking about this proposed RIB facility project. There is only one problem with the data they are using, it does not have anything to do with the site conditions or process at the proposed site we voted on Thursday.
Sure, we know the hydrology flow rate is 20 feet per hour. That is valuable information if you are assuming any of the treated and then filtered effluent makes it from the basin 20 acres away to the creek. AND, some of this previously twice filtered waste water being continuously filtered as it continues to slowly leech into the soil possibly makes it to the wetland area where it would then maybe make it to the sound.
Environmental activists would have us believe that once this now triple filtered treated effluent water has traversed underground for almost 20 acres and then makes it to the Williams Creek collection zone and then out to the sound, it is going to destroy all remaining grass beds at the mouth of Williams Creek. This assertion may be used to scare folks but it is not supported by science or the data they have been combining with their insults and attacks. Such is the world of politics where some will use any opportunity to self promote for their own interests and benefits over the benefits of others.
I take issue with those lying about my record of proactive decisions and recommendations made to protect our water quality and reverse the years of neglect that are contributing to the situation we find ourselves in District 4 today.
The Santa Rosa Sound did not become an impaired waterway overnight. This outcome took years of neglect and different policy priorities than most want today. It was these policies that have allowed the current practices negatively impacting our waterways to continue.
As I said at Thursday night’s Zoning Board meeting, I feel it would be hypocritical for me/Santa Rosa County to take a policy position opposing HNWS request while we operate a like utility that is continuing a practice we know damages the SRSound more directly than this request ever could.
Let’s remember, I requested to table the item for a month to allow time for HNWS to address our shared concerns surrounding this project. The votes were there a month ago for this to pass; so if I’m the “growth at any cost” guy the liberals are accusing me of, why would I delay the request and risk a moratorium by DEP?
We all share concerns on flooding, water quality and future effluent disposal plans.
My policy decisions and advocacy for improving our water quality is on video with recorded meeting minutes going back to my time as a volunteer on the zoning board. It is a matter of public record.
-As a member of the zoning board, I was in support of expanding our wellfield protection zone to better protect our sand and gravel water aquifer and ultimately our future water supply.
Etta, Wallis and others did all the hard work bringing this issue to the surface and deserve all the credit for its ultimate implementation.
But, during this almost yearlong process, I must have read more than 1,000 pages of support material related to the topic of our SRC water supply. I learned about hydrology studies, wellhead capture zones, nutrient loading, contamination impacts to the economy and the real science behind the importance of protecting our water quality.
It was during this time I began to gain a clear understanding of how important water quality, water supply and our water infrastructure is to our economy and our future. Everything we do in SRC and really the entire state is linked to maintaining an abundant supply of clean water. Just look at what happened in California with water shortages, contamination and massive increases in water related costs to taxpayers.
We should and I have been taking proactive steps to improve our water quality related policies in district 4 but that does not mean we should take an alarmist, anti-development view allowing environmental extremists to thwart every move we make.
Here are a few of the projects I have been a part of related to improving water quality in Santa Rosa County.
-when Santa Rosa County submitted their first list of RESTORE projects, there was not one single water quality project put forward to improve Santa Rosa sound water quality in District 4. I demanded a water quality project to improve Santa Rosa sound water quality be added to the list of projects and we now have such a project in our RESTORE implementation plan today.
-The much needed and recently approved multimillion dollar stormwater drainage project for the Villa Venyce Community in the Tiger Point area was originally designed for all runoff/untreated stormwater to flow directly into canals that flow into the Santa Rosa Sound. I requested the project include water quality features that will treat stormwater before it entered the Santa Rosa sound protecting our water quality. We have since learned these water quality enhancements are eligible for grant funds and the project now includes features to treat storm water before entering the canals that lead to the sound.
-Last year, I requested a water quality project be added to our legislative priorities and we were successful in getting $650,000 toward a stormwater drainage/water quality improvement project for Holly by the Sea.
I’m not going to sit back and allow a few liberals to distort my record without a response. We must not continue to allow environmentalists and Liberals to use scare tactics and manipulate data to increase costs, fund their advocacy and restrict good development in Santa Rosa County.
We have numerous examples of this activity in District 4:
The underwater camera proposed by the marine science station was delayed for two years while we waited for the results of a sturgeon study on the impact an underwater camera would have.
A decade old plan to add a third pavilion with additional parking to Navarre Marine Park finally received funding assistance from the federal government but the Audubon Society opposed this project at the last minute and now we will not be receiving much-needed enhancements to Navarre Marine Park. Instead, the existing pavilion areas will be slightly enlarged which is logistically as moronic as converting a guard shack into a turtle center.
Last year’s country concert with no activities on the gulf was required to spend thousands of additional dollars paying for 24 hour turtle nest monitoring, special fencing, and required to hire a special lighting company to provide turtle friendly lighting. Not surprised to learn there will be no concert this year.
The Eglin bypass, a project that could have effectively solved our Highway 98 traffic problem, was not cost feasible because of the need to protect the flatwood salamander. That’s right, when we are sitting in traffic on Highway 98 waiting for the department of transportation to six lane that roadway sometime in the next 10 years, we can thank the hard work of those who have protected the critical Flatwood salamander from relocating somewhere else.
Adding landscaping and beautification to the Navarre Beach Causeway will no longer be possible because of the continued efforts to expand bird habitat adjacent to that busy roadway. Instead of encouraging these birds to use habitat where there is no people, we instead find constrained areas that attract birds to where they are more likely to have conflict with humans.
We could cite example after example where we have used emotion and fear to guide our decisions related to the protection of our natural resources and environment instead of facts, the best available science and good growth management.
Liberals and environmentalists are misrepresenting my proactive efforts to improve water quality and protect our natural resources in SRC and they are using whatever means possible to expand environmental protections that are jeopardizing the military mission, making it increasingly more difficult to expand our tax base and increasing costs for virtually any project happening throughout the county which in turn will result in higher taxes for us.
I will continue to work for policies that will strike an appropriate balance between common sense growth strategies and protection of our natural resources.
Thank you, as always, for giving me the opportunity to serve as your local representative. I am grateful.
Rob Williamson
