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Ribbon Cutting Set For $316 Million ECUA Wastewater Plant
November 24, 2010
The Emerald Coast Utilities Authority’s new Central Water Reclamation Facility in Cantonment has been in operation since late August, and now a grand opening is planned for the largest public works project in the history of Escambia County.
On December 2, the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority will hold a community celebration to mark the completion of the new, $316-million CWRF. The public is invited to join ECUA board members and staff, as well as federal, state and local officials, as the state-of-the-art facility officially begins operations.
The December 2 dedication ceremony will begin at 2 p.m. with an overview of the plant and recognition of the people and organizations responsible for completing the project on time and under budget. It will conclude at 3 p.m. with a ceremonial turning of the “valve” to officially launch the operations. The ceremony will be followed by a public reception in the on-site administration/operations building.
The new plant sits on 2,000 acres on land adjacent to Ascend Performance Materials (formerly Solutia) on Old Chemstrand Road near Cantonment. A full 15 miles north of the existing Main Street Treatment Plant, the facility is well above the flood plain and is built to resist hurricane-force winds. Redundant power and storage systems help to ensure that the facility can remain operational during conditions that crippled the Main Street plant during Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
With the CWRF complete, ECUA plans to demolish the aging Main Street facility, which many believe will help encourage economic development in the area. Another benefit is that reclaimed water from that facility will no longer be discharged into Pensacola Bay. Thanks to innovative partnerships with Gulf Power Company and International Paper, reclaimed water from the CWRF will be reused by those two companies.
The CWRF was funded in large part through grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other federal sources, the State of Florida, Escambia County and the City of Pensacola. Several local firms, employing hundreds of Northwest Florida employees, participated in the design and construction of the facility and its 25 miles of pipeline.
Comments
7 Responses to “Ribbon Cutting Set For $316 Million ECUA Wastewater Plant”
“Name”, a properly functioning one does, and my comment had no bearing on the inspection system the state was dickering around with but on the overall issue. The fact is old systems leak and are a source of contamination in the water. And unfortunately there are those who would destroy their environment to save a penny. I remember when the county started the fees for dumping garbage and how suddenly trash started showing up in the woods, the creeks and along the edge of fields. It was disgusting the lack of concern and the pure cheapness of some people. If it had not been for some bold moves within government such as Pres. T. Roosevelt ramming conservation measures down people’s throat, and the pressure by people such as John Muir this country would be a treeless, stripped mined mess.
Think about this; how many of your creeks and streams would you drink out of now?
“Name”, a properly functioning one does, and my comment had no bearing on the inspection system the state was dickering around with but on the overall issue. The fact is old systems leak and are a source of contamination in the water. And unfortunately there are those who would destroy their environment to save a penny. I remember when the county started the fees for dumping garbage and how suddenly trash started showing up in the woods, the creeks and along the edge of fields. It was disgusting the lack of concern and the pure cheapness of some people. If it had been for some bold moves within government such as Pres. T. Roosevelt ramming conservation measures down people’s throat, and the pressure by people such as John Muir this country would be a treeless, stripped mined mess.
Think about this; how many of your creeks and streams would you drink out of now?
you meant Darryl, not David.
Personally, I’m thrilled we can take Pensacola’s waste and turn it into good things, useful for power generation processes and even paper making procedures. There is no such thing as waste, simply unused resources.
David for reverse osmosis desalination
David,
A properly functioning septic system is not ‘dumping raw sewage in the waters’.
Having paid $6000 to replace a system, I desire to gain utility from that investment.
Government forcing citizens to replace functional equipment to finance their investment is not good policy.
Wow, the first comment is so telling; lets continue to dump raw sewage in our waters in lieu of any improvements? It is amazing how we’ll dirty our ‘nest’ to such a degree, all in the name of saving a few bucks or some notion of ‘doing what I want with my property’ when they forget if you poison your property it is no good to your own heirs. I guess some would not stop destructive ways until the planet looked like a scene from “The Road”.
Something to think about regarding our drinking water:
Over 70% of our Earth’s surface is covered by water . Although water is seemingly abundant, the real issue is the amount of fresh water available.
* 97.5% of all water on Earth is salt water, leaving only 2.5% as fresh water
* Nearly 70% of that fresh water is frozen in the icecaps of Antarctica and Greenland; most of the remainder is present as soil moisture, or lies in deep underground aquifers as groundwater not accessible to human use.
* < 1% of the world's fresh water (~0.007% of all water on earth) is accessible for direct human uses. This is the water found in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and those underground sources that are shallow enough to be tapped at an affordable cost. Only this amount is regularly renewed by rain and snowfall, and is therefore available on a sustainable basis.
I would rather connect to it then pay the fee for inspecting my septic tank. Bring it on!
Sure hope they don’t force us all to connect to it in order to pay for it.