Town of Oak Hill secures $9 million to move 300 homes from septic to sewer
The city of Oak Hill in south Volusia County may be small with a population of 2,000, but they are up to big things.
And now they’ve secured nearly $9 million to move 300 homes from septic to sewer.
“It needs to be done,” Vicki Smothers said.
Smothers lives in Oak Hill's gold coast at Indian Harbor Estates where the homes are on the Indian River or on canals that flow into the river. Smothers says, for years, residents watched manatees frolic in their backyards. No more though.
“We used to have gobs of manatee that come in here that would eat the grass and play and you don't see them anymore, they're just not here anymore,” Smothers said.
That's why this groundbreaking of a septic to a sewer system is so welcome by local leaders, lawmakers, environmentalists and those who live and work on the water while septic tanks remove pathogens and don't break down the nutrients that are a by-product of human waste.
Nitrates and phosphates and fecal bacteria are in the canal and those chemicals cause algae blooms that have led to fish kills and manatee mortality. The blooms shade the water and prevent seagrass from growing.
“That's evidenced in all the manatees that are dying because they can't find enough to forage because there's not enough sunlight penetrating,” a spokesperson for the county said.
The mayor and other city officials worked with Volusia County, DEP, the St. Johns Water Management District and other stakeholders to secure funding with a negligible financial impact to residents but a huge benefit to the environment by drastically improving water quality.
While septic systems aren't the only cause of lagoon pollution, certainly fertilizer, stormwater runoff contribute as well, they do account for some water quality degradation.
“And we are very confident that once we get this project done, that will come down significantly,” the county said.
The septic to sewer conversion will take from 12 to 15 months. Officials say residents will have a year from the day it goes online to hook up.