Santa Rosa, Gulf Breeze, Holley-Navarre Water System at impasse over future of wastewater disposal
With Santa Rosa County teetering on the brink of a treated wastewater disposal crisis as the county's population continues to surge, three entities charged with maintaining utilities and coming up with a plan for the future are divided over what that plan looks like, and how it's going to be executed.
The South Santa Rosa Utility (operated by the city of Gulf Breeze), the Holley-Navarre Water System and Santa Rosa County (which operates a wastewater treatment plant on Navarre Beach) are at odds over coming up with a regional solution for treated wastewater disposal.
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The core issue is whether the county and HNWS will hook up to Gulf Breeze's Tiger Point Wastewater Treatment Plant — which supplies reclaimed water to about 1,100 residential and commercial customers in Gulf Breeze, Midway and Navarre — or continue with plans to discharge effluent on 200 leased acres of Eglin Air Force Base property, a massive infrastructure undertaking that would cost about $30 million in RESTORE funding.