Seminole County reviews utilities master plan: PFAS, aging pipes and SCADA upgrades top concerns

The Seminole County Board of County Commissioners received a third workshop on the utilities master plan Jan. 28, where Interim Utilities Director Johnny Edwards and Jacobs Engineering project manager Steve Riley outlined treatment, transmission and renewal-and-replacement priorities through 2045.

Steve Riley said the county’s water utility system is "entering its mature phase," with components more than 50 years old and a growing need to move from reactive repairs to a proactive renewal program. The master plan will guide investments, operations and replacement schedules across water treatment plants, wastewater facilities and reclaimed-water transmission.

At a high level, the county operates five water treatment plants across its service areas. Riley and staff presented demand projections out to 2045 showing that, if conservation measures and reclaimed-water expansion are implemented as planned, none of the county’s plants would require capacity expansion in the next 20 years; without those measures, the southeast regional plant may need work in the early 2040s. The county is conducting pilot testing at the Country Club water plant to assess whether existing treatment processes can meet emerging PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) contaminant limits that the presenter said will require compliance by 2029.

The presentation identified several near-term renewal-and-replacement items: ozone generation equipment at three plants (about 12 years old) will need replacement with more efficient units, and the county’s SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) control systems require modernization to improve operational flexibility and reliability.

On the wastewater side, Greenwood Lakes and Yankee Lake plants are connected; with targeted flow diversion—enabled by installing valves and metering along an existing force main—Greenwood Lakes could remain within permitted capacity while Yankee Lake would accommodate expanded flow. The consultant said Greenwood Lakes is physically constrained by surrounding wetlands, residential areas and high‑voltage power lines, while Yankee Lake has room for expansion from 3.5 million gallons per day (MGD) to 5 MGD.

Riley described a countywide risk-based assessment of pipelines that ranks gravity mains and force mains by probability and consequence of failure; the plan recommends inspecting roughly three miles of older gravity mains and about 23 miles of force mains as priorities. Reclaimed-water work in the northwest (retrofit phases 3–5) could save about 1 MGD of potable demand if implemented, the presentation said. The county staff also summarized coordination opportunities under a "dig once" approach—placing reclaimed or other utility pipes when public-right-of-way work by other agencies is already scheduled.

Staff noted compliance obligations under Florida’s Clean Waterways Act and said the master-plan schedule would likely shift the April capital improvement program deliverable back a month or two to ensure ongoing studies are incorporated; the county still expects to issue a final master plan in September 2025. Commissioners asked for the renewal-vs.-replacement strategy to be stated clearly in the master-plan documents, requested comparisons with neighboring utilities’ consumptive use patterns, and asked staff to quantify how rate adjustments and bond covenants might interact with the plan’s capital needs.

No formal action was taken at the workshop; staff will deliver binders and electronic versions of the work-session materials to commissioners’ offices and incorporate additional assessments as they become available.