Commissioners pump more money into Siesta Key station

The $25 million Siesta Key pump station project, scheduled to be completed in 2016, was delayed to coincide with a Phillippi Creek septic project.

By Jessica Salmond
| 1:00 a.m. March 19, 2015

The Siesta Key Wastewater Treatment Facility, located on Oakmont Place, off of Midnight Pass Road, emits a distinct odor.

Sarasota
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After a two-year delay, Sarasota County is moving forward with replacing the Siesta Key wastewater treatment plant with a pump station and force main.

The board approved a contract in 2010 for design and permitting of the pipeline routes. The board amended the contract twice in 2013 to add design and bid services. On Tuesday, the board voted to add more funds for the engineering phases of the project, which amounts to $829,075 total.

Siesta Key pump station phases

•Phase 1 Putting in a 20-inch force main and 20-inch water main from Siesta Key’s east side, under the Intracoastal Waterway, through Phillippi Estate Park to U.S. 41. Estimated cost: $4 million in construction; $214,167 design •Phase 2 Installing more than 10,000 feet of 20-inch force main from U.S. 41 to Lockwood Ridge Road, where it will connect with an existing main. On March 3, county commissioners approved the contract for this phase. Estimated cost: $16.5 million, to be shared with costs for the Phillippi Creek Septic System Replacement Program, which is being constructed concurrently with the Siesta project. •Phase 3 Building a master pump station on Siesta Key and laying more than 4,000 feet of force main and 1,000 feet of water main west of the Intracoastal Waterway. Estimated cost: $5 million construction; $614,908 design

The Siesta Key wastewater plant is supposed to be decommissioned in 2016 per an order from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. When finished, the master pump will transfer about 1.5 million gallons per day from Siesta to two mainland reclamation facilities. The $25 million master pump project will have three phases, divided into geographical sections.

The Siesta Key Association is already getting ready for the wastewater facility’s decommissioning next year. It has formed a committee to review the property left after the demolition of the current facilities. The committee wants to make a recommendation to the county on what to do with the parcel, located at the end of Oakmont Place.

“This has been in the works for a long time,” said Michael Shay, SKA president. “It’s there, it takes up land. (SKA) will start brainstorming for ideas.”

Scott Schroyer, the director of public utilities, said the future use of the property is still undetermined.

Schroyer concurred that the Siesta project had been delayed, but said part of the reason for the holdup was the county’s desire to efficiently implement two major projects happening in the same neighborhoods: The Phillippi Creek Septic System Replacement program will be occurring in some of the same neighborhoods as the Siesta project.

“Doing both together minimizes the disruption to the community,” he said.

The Phillippi Creek project has been in the works even longer, since 2001, and has been worked on in phases. The project will provide a central sewer system, replacing aged and failing septic systems, and eliminate smaller wastewater treatment plants that were discharging liquid wastes into Phillippi Creek and its tributaries.

At its March 3 meeting, the County Commission approved beginning the program in two more areas, spread from U.S. 41 to Lockwood Ridge Road just north of Stickney Point Road, which will cost an estimated $16.5 million. This cost can be partially funded by the Clean Water State Revolving Fund Loan. This $16.5 million includes phase 2 costs of the Siesta project; they were bid together and awarded to E.T. MacKenzie of Florida for construction.

The program is about 50% complete, and the county has spent $92.3 million thus far on the project as a whole over the course of more than 10 years. The estimated total for the entire project is $187.8 million.