FPUA awarded $28,061,358 grant

GRANTS UPDATE: Wastewater Wednesdays!

This very special Wastewater Wednesday, in addition to update photos, we are extremely proud to announce that Fort Pierce Utilities Authority has been awarded a grant of $28,061,358 toward phase 2 of our sewer treatment plant relocation project from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection Office of Resilience and Coastal Protection, Resilient Florida Program. The funds will be used toward re-routing the conveyance system, or re-routing sewer flows, toward the new Mainland Water Reclamation Facility (MWRF) that is being constructed on Energy Lane. The funds will also be used to restore an additional 2.47 acres of seagrass in the Indian River Lagoon. The Resilient Florida program aims to enhance Florida’s efforts to protect our waterways, coastlines, and shores using a coordinated approach to coastal and inland resiliency. This program previously provided $15,000,000 toward construction of FPUA’s MWRF in a prior project phase.

“Construction of the new reclamation facility has been a long time coming,” said FPUA Utility Director Javier Cisneros. “The relocation of our aging sewer treatment plant is our single largest active project and we are grateful to Governor DeSantis, the FDEP and state and local representatives for their tremendous support.”

The award for this phase of the project is from FDEP’s Fiscal Year 2024-2025 Statewide Flooding and Sea Level Rise Resilience Plan and represents FPUA’s proactive effort to seek grant funding in support of the relocation project and other critical utility projects. “These grants provide a great benefit to the FPUA utility and customers, who would otherwise be funding these projects entirely through rates and local funding,” said Public Affairs and Sustainability Director Rachel Tennant, who oversees FPUA’s community engagement and grants programs. “We are proud to facilitate these grants for our community, and grateful beyond measure for the state support in our community.”

“By building a state-of-the-art plant and alleviating pressure on customer rates to fund this lifetime project, we are positively benefitting our community for generations to come, right here in Fort Pierce,” said Water and Wastewater Systems Director Bo Hutchinson. The upgraded plant will be more energy-efficient and cost less to operate, saving our customers money. Its location next door to the Florida Municipal Power Agency’s natural gas power plant adds a unique sustainability element to the project too. The project will reduce an average two million gallons per day of draw from Florida’s aquifers by instead utilizing reuse water from the sewer plant for the 300 MW power plant cooling towers.

Projects funded by the Resilient Florida program, like FPUA’s wastewater treatment plant relocation, “will ensure inland and coastal communities are prepared for the impacts of storm surge, hurricanes, and flooding, continuing our aggressive efforts to protect Florida’s natural resources and infrastructure,” said Governor Ron DeSantis in an announcement.

This critical project removes FPUA’s existing island sewer treatment plant from the shores of the Indian River Lagoon, and places the new treatment plant five miles west, far away from the lagoon and in an industrial area away from neighborhoods. The project will replace aging infrastructure with new technology, increase resilience, limit potential environmental impacts, and better serve the community.

“The Mainland Sewer Treatment Plant is a testament to FPUA’s commitment to providing the highest quality services to our community,” said Hutchinson. “We are honored and thankful to have been awarded this funding, and look forward to serving our customers with a new sewer treatment plant in the near future.”

FPUA is grateful for this project with industry leaders Globaltech, Inc., Haskell and Hazen, the site designers and build team; TLC Diversified, Inc., re-routing the conveyance system to redirect wastewater flows away from the Indian River Lagoon; Kimley-Horn, the conveyance system designers, and the sub-contractors working so hard to keep this project safe and on schedule.

We are also thankful for the partnership with the City of Fort Pierce in this infrastructure improvement effort that will benefit the Fort Pierce community for generations.

Take a virtual tour of the new Mainland Wastewater Reclamation Facility at:

https://www.sustainablesewer.net/videos

Thank you as always for your support and interest! We look forward to sharing more in the coming weeks!

#FLPublicPower #CommunityProud Florida Municipal Electric Association Florida Municipal Power Agency Integ-Crete Construction