Saw this over at www.bigpinekey.com.

[Sewer Failure] Word on the street, especially from the guys trying to repair it, is that the Cudjoe Regional sewer collection system is a huge failure that does not work as intended. That is with only about 350 connections! How will it work with 9,000!

There is a groundswell developing to petition the State to be able to retain septic systems and other onsite treatment as backup to this “grand experiment” as, I think, Kevin Wilson called it in a public meeting. It is on video, anyway. A brand new grassroots group is currently being formed to handle this petition. To write a convincing petition, we need eyewitness reports of the system failures, so they can be documented. FKAA management is hiding all they can, of course.

Reports of sewer failures may be sent to CudjoeFail@mail.com for now. The more detail you can include, the better, but date, location, and nature of the failure are important. If you can include time of day and service truck numbers, so much the better. Already it has been reported that:
-The gravity area lift stations are not all pumping to the plant. A vacuum tank truck is being used to suck out the contents and carry it to the plant.
-There is massive inflow & infiltration in this brand new system that is filling lift stations during rains even when there is nobody connected.
-The telemetry system that is required by the State to radio reports of lift station alarms to a dispatcher for repair response is not working. The alarm light and horn have been disconnected in troubled stations so people will quit calling in on stations that cannot be kept out of a high water condition for long.
-One lift station has reportedly had 3 of the inappropriate and illegal E-One residential pumps have burned up already. In that severe service, they were projected to last 5 years, not 5 weeks!
-Individual (simplex) grinder pumps have already burnt out.
-The plan to keep the illegal non-explosion-proof pumps in lift stations fully submerged so they cannot ignite a sewer explosion has not worked out well, so now the pump motor is being exposed where it can potentially ignite sewer gasses or flammable liquid vapors. Watch out for flying manhole lids and projectile vomiting toilets.
-Some brand new gravity sewer pipes are being found clogged with dirt. Did pipes break or come apart?

Keep your eyes open, watch what’s going on, ask questions, and please report those failures to CudjoeFail@mail.com. If you need to stay anonymous, no problem. Nobody can report failures better than an FKAA or contractor’s employee. When the petition is available, you will know it.

Don’t know if it’s true or not.  It wouldn’t shock me if it is.  There are ongoing issues at Big Coppitt and that was a traditional gravity system.  Cudjoe Regional has a lot of gravity lift stations outfitted with grinder pumps designed to serve single-family homes.  I’m told that some of these stations have eight pumps.  Bizarre.

The fact that the Cudjoe Regional system cost $196 million to build already aggravates my guts.  How much more is it going to cost to make this thing work now?  Ugh.