COCOA, Fla. — After multiple meetings, the City of Cocoa remains at an impasse regarding a project recommended in a Brevard County-funded study.

During its regular city council meeting on Aug. 9, the five-member council voted down two proposals connected to plans to convert the septic tanks at 92 homes along the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) to become part of the city’s sewer system.

This was one of 11 septic-to-sewer projects identified in the original Save Our Indian River Lagoon (SOIRL) Project Plan from 2016. According to the February 2022 plan update, the plan funding for the project, named “City of Cocoa — Zones J and K,” was stated to cost $5,622,000.

To help offset the costs, $5.1 million in funds from the SOIRL half-cent sales tax would be provided to the city, assuming full buy-in on the project. 

The discussion went back and forth over multiple city council meetings, with both residents and council members weighing in on the proposal. On the table were three main proposals:

1. Reject the SOIRL funds and let homeowners directly apply for grants to upgrade their septic systems to what are called “advanced septic systems”;
   
   
2. Get additional grants to help cover the increased costs, but that would require all residents living along Indian River Drive to connect to the new sewer line;
   
   
3. Do nothing and decide later

In between the city council meetings on July 26, and Aug. 9, the utilities department was tasked with getting a more thorough cost analysis because it didn’t have a detailed project cost estimate at the time. However, rising inflation costs and a potentially lack of complete buy-in were driving up the projected cost. 

During the Aug. 9 meeting, Utilities Director Jack Walsh said that the high-cost estimate of the project “could be as much as $12 million,” adding that “that number keeps going up.”

Ultimately on Tuesday, votes over options one and two resulted in 2-2 ties and failed. Council member Lorraine Koss abstained from both discussion and votes because she lives in the area impacted by the proposed project.

Impact of septic-to-sewer projects

This is one of 42 septic-to-sewer projects outlined in the SOIRL Project Plan, which is prepared by Tetra Tech, Inc. with regular updates on behalf of the Brevard County Natural Resources Management Department. The plan was created after voters in Brevard County approved the Save Our Indian River Lagoon half-cent sales tax in 2016 to provide funding for numerous projects designed to improve the health of the ailing lagoon.

The report identifies multiple areas across the county as promising sites where septic tanks could be converted into the sewer system. The “J&K” project identifies 92 septic parcels along Indian River Drive in the Cocoa Focus Area as being “cost-effective” for this kind of work.

According to the February 2022 update, this conversion would prevent 3,748 pounds of nitrogen from going into the lagoon each year. That update also points to a three-year groundwater monitoring effort that also found that “septic systems and reclaimed water communities have significantly higher TN (total nitrogen) concentrations in comparison to sewer service areas and natural areas across all regions of the county.”

The latest plan update also recognizes that these types of projects have been getting more expensive since they were first proposed in the original 2016 plan. The estimate of $20,000 per lot to connect to a gravity sewer jumped up to $33,372 as of 2018. 

The cost of upgrading to an advanced septic system (option 1 that the city discussed) was also increased from $16,000 to $18,000 as of the 2019 plan update.

“Cost estimates have continued to increase due to construction inflation and supply-chain issues. Challenges associated with constructing sewer within old, narrow rights-of-way filled with existing utilities also drive up costs,” according to the report.

The SOIRL Committee chose this and other septic-to-sewer projects that were deemed to have the greatest impact on the lagoon’s health, since total conversion was deemed “cost prohibitive.” The report states on page five that “It would cost at least $1.19 billion to convert all 59,500 septic tanks to central sewage treatment.”

Financial challenges

The 92 homeowners could also potentially be on the hook for roughly $3 million of the project, due in part to the complexities of the engineering needed to access the septic tanks around landscaping of varying complexity, Walsh said during his presentation. 

He broke down the types of homes into four buckets of difficulty/estimated cost per lot:

• 4 homes — $62,640 per lot
• 50 homes — $30,960 per lot
• 20 homes — $27,960 per lot
• 18 homes — $24,420 per lot

Walsh said the four most extreme homes present several engineering challenges.

“They are almost absolutely going to have to do some boring to go under stuff and to go around stuff,” Walsh said. “I mean, you gotta go up and then you gotta go across the back to get to it, as well as try to avoid the trees and the canopy and the root systems and everything else.” 

Following the presentation, Deputy Mayor Lavander Hearn said it was “very frustrating” that there wasn’t more collaboration between the SOIRL Committee, Tetra Tech and the City of Cocoa when this project was being identified and gamed out.

“I think we would’ve saved a lot of headache if there was collaboration during this time with Tetra Tech. It’s frustrating,” Hearn said. “Like I said, this project is of great importance, and personally, I believe we need to get it done. It’s the ‘how,’ and that’s where we’re at.”

Council member Rip Dyal felt the septic-to-sewer project shouldn’t move forward with the current level of funding since he thought the estimate of $12 million was too low and that he believed it would be closer to $18 million.

He also argued that if the council were to move forward with option 2 and, to potentially get additional funding from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), mandate that homeowners leave their septic tanks, that could incur legal challenges.

“There’s going to be some homeowners that are totally against us. And those homeowners, where they live at, probably have the financial means to get a lawyer and sue to stop it,” Dyal said. “So, that could be tied up in court for a year, two years because some of the stuff we know going on right now takes time in the court systems.

“So, while they’re fighting this, we can’t do it, and the cost goes up.”

Council member Alex Goins said he spoke with Courtney Barker, the SOIRL Committee member who oversees the finance part of the committee’s work, about other funds that could help cover the cost of this project.

“From my understanding, as of today, they have over $20 million inside of their contingency just set up for the overages or possible overages that some of the projects may possibly have,” Goins said. “And she definitely didn’t want to assure me of any guarantees, but there have been zero projects that were turned away from septic-to-sewer.”

“So, I couldn’t imagine, for a project that Brevard County has said that this is the No. 1 priority for our county, to turn down any household that may have overages of whatever the amount is because they set aside $20 million just for that purpose because they knew that inflation and all these other things will more likely come into fruition.”

However, that argument didn’t sway Mayor Mike Blake or Dyal. Dyal made the motion to vote on option 1, to reject the SOIRL funds and have homeowners request funds to upgrade to advanced septic systems.

Blake and Dyal voted for that, and Goins and Hearn voted against it. That vote was flipped for option 2 to mandate the septic-to-sewer conversion, and both options were defeated on Aug. 9.

While the project does not have the financial support to move forward at this point, city officials said that they are reaching out to the county to see what additional funds might be available and how they could move forward with the project.