Nearly four times the land size of Lake Worth, Jupiter, another beach town a few miles up the coast from us, made a decision several years back to turn waste water into irrigation for homes, parks, public buildings and golf courses. The recently completed plant cost $22 million and Jupiter earns $11.4 million yearly delivering 7 million gallons a day.If you recall, back in March 2008, this extremely important decision of what to do with our waste water was placed under the City Manager’s Report. Therefore, no public input was allowed. FPL needed treated water for its new power plant and they wanted ours. And by golly, they were going to get it. Afterall, Lake Worth is known to roll over and give it all away. The City Commission HAD to make a decision right away that very night. In fact, Brian Shields, Palm Beach County, said that ECR needed a decision in one week. Lake Worth was the only hold-up for the East Central Regional Wastewater Reclamation Facility (ECR).
Finance Director Mark Bates pushed for it and talked about the negative of having our own plant: it would take 5 to 10 years to build and it was estimated to cost us $1 million a mile for 14 miles. He said that it would be a “win, win” for all concerned if we gave our waste water to FPL on a 30 year lease. Samy Faried, Utilities Director at the time and our Rep to ECR, was on the hot seat earlier in the evening with his request for an extension on his residency requirement.
Of course, we know the outcome of this vote. 3 to 2 with Mayor Clemens stating that it would take capital to have our own plant. Retha went along with the ride and Vespo just said “yes” as he did to all major proposals affecting our city. It was the "get it off our plate" scenario for which this past Commission was famous.
It was just another drastic decision by these three Commissioners.
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