Ahh…here’s a great place to build my dream home.

Update2:  The Blue Paper published my post and the Citizen published this article.  Looks like the  Citizen has a FART – Fast Action Response Team – that immediately responds to uncomfortable stories about the county and/or the FKAA.  Can’t complain too much though.  The article provided a very useful factoid – there is a 43-unit development going up in the Key Haven area.   Nothing from the Reporter/Keynoter, but they did publish a story about caring for your pet’s teeth today.  Lol.

Update:  I emailed county staff asking about this one.  I copied members of the Keys media, too.  That’s my new thing.  If I hear anything (doubtful!) I’ll let you know.

I was perusing Monroe County’s Comprehensive Plan Update the other day and I saw something very interesting.

Objective 901.1

Monroe County shall ensure that, at the time a certificate of occupancy, or its functional equivalent is issued, adequate sanitary wastewater treatment and disposal facilities, including wastewater treatment facilities and onsite sewage treatment and disposal systems, are available to support the development at the adopted level of service standards, and annually update the five-year schedule of capital needs accordingly. [§163.3180(1)(b), F.S., §163.3180(2)., F.S., §163.3177(6)(c), F.S.]

So before a certificate of occupancy is issued, the county must make sure that “adequate” sewer service is available to “support the development at the adopted level of service standards”.  Adopted level of service standards?  What’s that?  Well here’s a snip from the Comprehensive Plan Update that explains exactly what that is.

The table doesn’t explicitly say so but these are annual averages mandated by the FDEP.  So what happens if a wastewater treatment system repeatedly fails to meet these requirements?  It would seem to me that the county would be obligated to withhold certificates of occupancy for new development within the service area until the system is brought into compliance.  Unfortunately, this is not theoretical.  The county is facing this very issue today.

I’ve discussed the ongoing problem at Big Coppitt,where the FKAA is having difficulty meeting total suspended solids (TSS )effluent limits.  Fortunately, those issues haven’t been enough to cause the annual average to be out of compliance.  So even though several samples have exceeded the single sample limit, the plant is in compliance when it comes to the annual average.  For now.

There’s another worrisome issue people in the area ought to know about – the plant has also been out of compliance on fecal coliform samples a couple of times.  One sample was 2000 cfu/100 mL.  The limit is 25 cfu/100 mL.  Fortunately, this has only been reported twice that I know about.

The Duck Key wastewater treatment plant has also run into trouble meeting TSS and fecal coliform limits.  Again, the annual averages are still compliant, but single sample maximums have been exceeded multiple times.

The FDEP has sent compliance assistance offer letters to the FKAA regarding the ongoing issues at both of these plants.  Big Coppitt has received two.  The first one noted the exceedances but still rated the plant in compliance.  Presumably this first letter served as a warning.  The second one detailed another round of similar issues.  Unfortunately, detailed responses from the FKAA are not on file.  As far as I can tell, the FKAA has no intention of addressing the issue in a forthright way.  I guess they just expect people to live with it.  Sadly, the FKAA has a long track record of lying to the public and abusing their trust.

According to the December 2016 DMR, the Key Haven plant is out of compliance on annual averages for three of the four parameters listed in the county code – total suspended solids (TSS), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP).  Not a peep from FDEP yet though.  Certainly not a peep from the FKAA.  As I pointed out above, there’s another responsible entity involved here.  Monroe County is obligated to withhold certificates of occupancy unless adequate wastewater treatment facilities are available.  So has the county run into this issue in the Key Haven area?  If they have, did they actually follow their own requirements and withhold a certificate of occupancy?

Well, if the Ocean’s Edge debacle has taught us anything, it’s that the county isn’t a big fan of following its own rules.