By John Pacenti
Manalapan Town Manager Eric Marmer has a whiteboard in his office full of projects that need addressing, but he says the top priority has long been on the municipality’s to-do list: converting its multimillion-dollar homes from septic to sewer to protect against a future environmental disaster.
The plan is to present a feasibility study of extending the central sewer system at the July 8 Town Commission meeting. Engineers have 30% of the design complete. Installing a sewer system would run between $15 million and $20 million, but Marmer says 50% of those costs could be covered through state and local grants.
“The thing that was most shocking is the fact that in just a few short years, the water intrusion potential into the current septic systems people have here is troubling,” Marmer said.
Septic systems release nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus into the surrounding soil. In coastal areas, these nutrients can leach into the groundwater and eventually leach into bays, estuaries in the Intracoastal Waterway and the ocean, where they feed algal blooms which choke marine life and cause coral bleaching.
And Florida — one of the most ecologically sensitive states in the U.S. — loves septic. Roughly 30% of its population relies on these onsite sewage treatment disposal systems — translating to roughly 2.6 million septic systems.
As such, Manalapan is hardly alone as other coastal Florida cities, towns and villages are struggling with the septic problem. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, for instance, has made eliminating septic tanks one of her signature issues, tied to the health of Biscayne Bay.
In the coastal areas of South Palm Beach County, septic systems are common and used by the majority of single-family homes in Ocean Ridge, Manalapan and Gulf Stream.
In Ocean Ridge, for instance, there are 728 single-family homes on septic and 873 multi-family units with approximately 15 “package plants.” Multi-family developments utilize small “package plants” that are privately owned, privately maintained and must be permitted through applicable state and local agencies.
Connecting homes to sewer has been talked about in Manalapan since at least the 1990s, Marmer said. Currently, its commercial and government properties — Manalapan Town Hall, the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa, Plaza del Mar, and La Coquille Villas — are connected to a central sewer that feeds into the Lake Worth Beach system.
The commission is looking at the options because 220 properties in town use septic tanks: 155 on Point Manalapan and 65 along State Road A1A. Only 93 properties are part of the gravity sewer system from Town Hall to the north.
Florida has mandated that some vulnerable areas — homes along the Indian River Lagoon in Martin County, for instance — convert to sewer by July 2030.
If the state does require Manalapan and other communities to move from septic to sewer, Marmer said that the competition for contractors and grant dollars will be fierce, putting the town in a bad position.
“We’re racing against the clock,” Marmer said.
Manalapan is home to large residences, often with unique designs that make their way to architectural magazines. For such a sophisticated community, it may come as a surprise to some — such as potential homeowners — that there is a septic field beneath those manicured lawns.
“The investments that are being made in this town and the development of more modern homes here, it’s just something that people who come to live here expect is already done,” Marmer said.
“I think doing this not only raises the property value, but also brings this municipality up to the standards that people expect it to be at.”
Tom Biggs, vice president for Mock Roos & Associates, the engineering firm that conducted the feasibility study, explained that the assessment uses multiple National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sea level rise models. The study indicates that some septic systems are currently impacted by seasonal high tides, with regular flooding along State Road A1A.
With sea level rise, Mock Roos models show that between 70% and 80% of the septic fields in Manalapan will be inundated. NOAA’s intermediate-high sea level rise predicts a rise of 1.65 feet this century.
“I’m confident right now with seasonal high tides, there are probably systems in the town that are impacted,” Biggs said.
Along the Indian River, municipalities struggled to get residents to connect to the central sewer because of the cost. Marmer told the commission at its April meeting that a connection fee is currently projected at $32,500.
“It’s going to be expensive to connect. We’re going to look at different ways to fund that, to try not to have residents bear the brunt of that connection fee,” Marmer said. “But we’re still exploring that.”
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