Wedgefield residents have a difficult choice to make about the future of water and wastewater services in the east Orange County community — and none of the available options are particularly promising.
“None of these are good; some of them (are) better than others,” said Orange County Deputy Utilities Director Tim Armstrong at a recent community meeting.
About a hundred Wedgefield residents came to the meeting to hear the latest on the community’s deteriorating water and wastewater systems owned by Pluris, a private holding company based in Dallas. Residents have repeatedly raised a range of concerns with both systems: from water main breaks and low water pressure, to bad-tasting drinking water and tap water that smells of sewage.
‘Significant and immediate needs’
Last year, Orange County’s evaluation of the Pluris systems determined they were in poor condition and in dire need of “prolonged deferred maintenance,” a finding later echoed by a separate assessment conducted by the Florida Governmental Utility Authority.
FGUA is a special government authority which identifies, acquires and restores utilities to better condition. Usually, once FGUA brings them up to speed, those utility systems ultimately get turned over to a host government — like Orange County.
RELATED: Special government authority could take over Wedgefield water, wastewater systems
The county had hoped FGUA would take over the Pluris systems. But earlier this year, following its assessment of the systems, FGUA decided not to acquire them — marking what appears to be a first for the special government authority, according to Orange County.
FGUA’s assessment “quickly confirmed” Orange County’s finding that the Pluris systems are in dire need of repairs, Armstrong said. “They were also very concerned … I don't want to sugarcoat that: there's significant and immediate needs.”
In terms of when exactly each system might fail, Armstrong said, he can’t predict that for certain. But the point is there are serious issues with the systems that need to be addressed.
“I don't have a crystal ball,” Armstrong said. “But when another company comes in and says significant and immediate capital needs, to me, that means there needs to be work done quickly to address problems.”
The cost of repairs
In a best-case scenario, the water and wastewater systems owned by Pluris would cost an estimated $59 million to repair. Based on a series of prior conversations with Wedgefield residents, Armstrong said, community members would only be potentially willing to tax themselves for a portion of that total cost: no more than $35 million, collectively, billed over a 20-year period.
Under that scenario, based on Wedgefield’s current utility rates, Armstrong estimated residents would end up paying about $28 more per month over 20 years.
Even then, residents would still be facing a funding deficit of at least $24 million, Armstrong said. Federal and/or state grants could help make up the deficit. Another potential option could be to impose an additional, one-time tax for either all Orange County taxpayers, or just those residents already paying for the county’s utility services.
Regardless, even reaching the $35 million mark will be a challenge, Armstrong said: in no small part because of the county’s supermajority requirement for communities voting on whether to establish a new self-imposed taxing district, like a Municipal Service Benefit Unit or MSBU. The supermajority requirement means 67% of all ballots must be cast in approval of the MSBU.
In Wedgefield’s case, Armstrong said, a ballot would be assigned to each parcel of land (besides the school, which is tax-exempt) — bringing the total number of ballots to 1,765. Of that total, the supermajority would require 1,183 ballots to say “yes.” Any unreturned ballots would count as “no” votes.
Some residents worry the community wouldn’t be able to meet that supermajority threshold for approval. But Sheila Mayhew said she thinks the MSBU vote is Wedgefield’s best hope for getting more reliable water and wastewater service.
“We've got to have the community show up,” Mayhew said. “At this point, for me, I truly believe the next step is doing the MSBU and giving the citizens the right to vote for what happens within their community and this water problem.”
Mayhew leads a Facebook group for interested community members called the “Wedgefield Water Alliance.”
At the community meeting, District 5 Commissioner Kelly Martinez Semrad asked Wedgefield residents whether they’d support an MSBU vote. The feedback she received was that residents want to know if Orange County would tweak its supermajority requirement, to make it less strict. Martinez Semrad vowed to raise that question with the board of commissioners.
In case of emergency, Orange County would respond
Orange County does not have regulatory authority over the Pluris systems. But in a worst-case scenario, should either system fail, Armstrong assured Wedgefield residents they wouldn’t have to face the emergency alone.
“I want to be clear,” Armstrong said. “Under any scenario of an emergency with the system or the environment, we will respond to anything that happens out here.”
If the wastewater system fails, Armstrong said, “it's not going to be like it's going to just explode. It's going to leak and it's going to cause problems, and then we're going to have to respond.” If and when the county were to respond to an emergency scenario, all related costs would ultimately be billed to Pluris.
The county’s utilities and legal departments are expected to brief county commissioners on the latest with Wedgefield’s water and wastewater systems at the Sept. 15 commission meeting.
In the meantime, Wedgefield residents are invited to share their feedback at another public meeting this Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m., at the Wedgefield School on Bancroft Boulevard.
