Dade City hears update on proposed wastewater plant, funding options and timetable

Tom Ville, a professional engineer with Infrastructure Engineering Group, told the Dade City Commission at a budget workshop that consultants are finalizing the basis of design for a proposed replacement wastewater treatment plant and preparing options for phasing and financing. “We are just about finished with the basis of design,” Ville said, adding that preliminary design, topographic and boundary surveys and utility locates are already under way.

The presentation said the initial design target is a 3.2 MGD plant; the city’s current permitted capacity is 1.5 MGD. Ville said a 3.2 MGD first phase would accommodate about 7,500 additional housing units beyond currently committed development, and that the project cost estimate used in a recent application was $78,000,000 for a full 3.2 MGD build — including demolition of the old plant and a small lift station to serve the adjacent neighborhood.

City and consultant speakers emphasized that the final delivered scope may be smaller for financial reasons. “We may walk that phase back . . . to something like a 2.5 million gallon a day phase. And that’s strictly a…