- October 26, 2024
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The city of Bunnell is applying for a State Revolving Fund loan to fund the expansion of the city’s wastewater treatment plant.
At a city meeting on Nov. 22, the City Commission voted unanimously in favor of a resolution authorizing the loan application and an agreement with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
State funding for the wastewater treatment plant project was one of three requests the city of Bunnell made to state legislators during a Flagler County legislative delegation meeting at the county’s Government Services Building on Oct. 2. (The others are funding for the grant program the city hopes to use to restore the historic coquina city hall, and funding for the extension of Flagler Central Commerce Parkway from the Government Services Building complex out to U.S. 1).
The SRF at a public meeting on Aug. 11 had authorized an allocation of $12 million for the city’s wastewater project, with $4 million in loan forgiveness. The loan would run for 20 years and be repaid using utility operating revenues, and the expansion would be designed by the architecture and engineering firm CPH.
The wastewater treatment facility on Tolman Street, west of U.S. 1 and south of State Road 100, is currently permitted for 0.6 million gallons a day worth of annual average flow. It had exceeded 50% of its capacity by 2014 and is expected to exceed its permitted capacity by 2024 if it isn’t expanded. The proposed expansion would increase its capacity to 1.2 million gallons per day.
The upgrades will also equip the plant with a biological nutrient removal process that will make the effluent advanced wastewater treatment standards, benefiting Haw Creek, the waterway where it’s discharged. Some of the effluent is already used for irrigation, including at the Grand Reserve Golf Course, according to the city’s website.
The city will also construct a new operations building if funding is still available.
