Water Board DEP considers DEP Consent Order

The Cedar Key Water and Sewer District met for a special meeting Monday, Aug. 27, to try to determine the best way to respond to a Consent Order that was issued by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on Aug. 15.

The order required a response within 14 days of receipt, so the board authorized Chairman David Beach to ask for a 30-day extension, as well as, an extension beyond the 90-day period in which they are required to offer solutions to one of DEPs concerns.

The CKWSD has just pulled through the salt-water infiltration crisis that put their planning for an iron removal system on hold; but the majority of Monday`s meeting put that system on the front burner again.


Joe Mittauer and Greg Lang, of Mittauer & Associates, Inc., presented an overview of the issues the board must grapple with to complete the USDA-funded pipeline project.

Despite the ominous wording of "consent order" there is actually a silver lining to it. Because DEP has issued it, the District is now eligible for a 75% grant to fund the project and the lowest interest rate available. Prior to the consent order, they were only eligible for 45% funding.

One point of DEPs 9-page document is that the CKWSD is not in compliance due to the sodium levels in the drinking water. In reality, that issue has already been addressed by the new reverse osmosis system, as well as, most of the issues listed.

This was explained to DEP in a letter from Board Chairman David Beach that was sent out late on Aug. 28. In it he said that, the District was in the process of addressing the issues of high iron content in the well water and had designed a solution. However, the salt water intrusion required immediate attention and the first project was temporarily put on hold.

Another issue spelled out in DEPs consent order was the matter of the salty discharge that is the by-product of removing the salt from the water and making it safe to drink.

Beach pointed out that since the RO system has been installed, only one unit has had to run (and only 8-10 hours a day) because the aquifer has come up and the salinity level has gone down. So there is less saline concentrate to dispose of than anticipated. Currently it is being safely contained in a lime slurry pond that is "fully absorbing this flow through evaporation and transpiration and not overflowing into any other body of water."

In summary, Beach also asked that the prior permit application for the Iron Removal Project be cancelled and the application fee refunded; that the District be allowed 30 additional days to respond to the Consent Order; be given 360 days (rather than 90) to evaluate and design a plan for the concentrate disposal; and he pointed out that since Aug. 1, the District water has "been in complete compliance with the MCL (Maximum Contaminant Levels) allowed for Sodium, Chlorides and Total Dissolved Solids." He agreed that they are not in compliance on the disposal of the concentrate from the RO units, but that they can design a permanent solution within 360 days.