By Rich Pollack
Highland Beach town leaders figured they would see a reduction in the amount of wastewater being treated at a plant in Delray Beach when a recent $1.4 million sewer-lining project was completed.
They just didn’t realize how much ground water was seeping into the system and how much money it was costing to treat that extra flow.
It turned out that checks on the first few meter readings after the project was completed over the summer showed a reduction of about 15% in the amount of wastewater being sent to the regional treatment plant in Delray Beach.
“We are no longer sending out clean water to be treated,” Town Manager Marshall Labadie said.
Labadie estimates that the reduction in volume could translate into a savings of $10,000 to $15,000 a month, or a reduction of as much as $180,000 from the $1 million to $1.2 million annual cost of sewage treatment.
“That’s a big change,” he said, adding that the savings should cover the cost of the sewer-lining project in about eight years.
So how did all that extra water get into the pipes?
The town manager said that when crews began lining the sewer main, they noticed some large breaks that allowed ground water to rush in. Those fissures ended up being more costly when heavy rains or king tides forced larger amounts of water into the wastewater disposal process.
Labadie said that the reduction in the number of gallons being treated will fluctuate day to day and during the season when the population increases.
The sewer-lining project is part of a bigger effort within the town to shore up older infrastructure and prepare for higher water tables due to increases in sea levels and events such as storms or king tides.
With the completion of the improvements, Labadie says, the town’s wastewater treatment infrastructure could have an additional 30- to 50-year lifespan.
The town is in the process of upgrading its six lift stations by raising them to prevent them from being damaged by higher water.
The multiyear project will come with a price tag of about $3 million — or about $500,000 each — with the town receiving state appropriations to help with the cost of infrastructure improvements.
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