The future of essential infrastructure in one East Orange County community remains uncertain, following the governor’s veto of $7.5 million lawmakers had requested for improvements to Wedgefield’s water and wastewater systems. Area residents have complained for years about the privately-owned systems, which are in a “substandard state,” according to an analysis by Orange County Utilities.
“For me, there are times in my bathroom where, when the water comes out of the faucet, it actually smells like sewage,” said Sheila Mayhew, who said she moved to Wedgefield a little less than three years ago and has been hearing her neighbors complain about the water ever since.
“It makes their clothes change color. It causes stains in their clothes,” Mayhew said, citing some of her neighbors’ complaints. “There have been people here who are replacing appliances like, once every five to 10 years … because the water’s awful.”
The wastewater treatment plant, in particular, has “an abundance of identified issues,” including odor concerns and deteriorating structures, according to the analysis by Orange County Utilities, referring to a site visit staff made to the plant in late 2023. “It has been determined by the staff that repairing this facility is not economically viable.”
Another chief complaint among Wedgefield residents is the high price they pay for water: between $500 and $800 a month for a four- or five-person home, according to some residents.
The water and wastewater infrastructure serves roughly 1,700, mostly residential parcels in Wedgefield, according to a presentation Orange County staff made to commissioners earlier this year. Staff and commissioners have been working with area residents to brainstorm potential solutions, including acquiring the systems owned by Texas-based Pluris Wedgefield, LLC. The county prices the acquisition cost, including necessary capital improvements, around $83 million.
The working plan was for Wedgefield residents to organize and vote on whether to deed-restrict their homes to effectively pay into and buy the infrastructure, then donate it back to Orange County, according to District 5 Commissioner Kelly Martinez Semrad, who represents the area. If 60% of residents were to vote “yes” on acquiring the Pluris systems, Orange County would also come to the table with some funding support, Martinez Semrad said. But the hope was for requested state funds to come through, offsetting some of the county’s financial burden.
Now, Governor Ron DeSantis’ veto of those funds set aside by lawmakers for Wedgefield creates another obstacle for the project, Martinez Semrad said.
“I don't know what is to come to be [now],” Martinez Semrad said. “What I do know is we cannot afford to do nothing. We must find a solution.”
Originally, Democratic Florida State Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith and Florida House Representative Erika Booth, a Republican, had asked for $15 million to improve Wedgefield’s infrastructure. Their request was later slashed to $7.5 million, the amount which made it to the legislature’s final budget proposal and was ultimately vetoed.
For Wedgefield residents and Orange County, $7.5 million represents a huge sum of money which isn’t so huge in the context of the state’s nearly $118 billion state budget, Martinez Semrad said. She called the governor’s choice to veto the funding “shortsighted.”
“I don't think that he understands the consequences and the implications in terms of public safety and water contamination that will happen when this system fails,” Martinez Semrad said. “It's not a maybe, if the system fails. It's a when the system fails, we are in big trouble.”
Ultimately, when the wastewater system fails, that “big trouble” could mean cleaning raw sewage out of the nearby St. Johns River, Martinez Semrad said. “The expense of that is immense, and that will fall on the backs of taxpayers.”
It’s one of many examples of water availability and quality issues also bubbling up in other parts of Central Florida and the country, Martinez Semrad said. “We're running on borrowed time right now, and it will catch up with us unless we start getting people talking and concerned about our water as a major lifeline resource.”
In light of the governor’s veto, Orange County Utilities is expected to ask county commissioners at their board meeting July 15 for direction on next steps to address Wedgefield’s infrastructure issues, according to Martinez Semrad’s office.
