Deltona lays out multiyear plan to expand wastewater capacity; design grant, relocation proposal advance
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Summary
City utility staff described plans to expand the Eastern wastewater plant to 3.0 million gallons per day, pursue design work funded by a $4 million state grant with $2 million local matching funds, and relocate Fisher’s advanced treatment processes to a larger Alexander Avenue site to improve resiliency and reduce neighborhood impacts.
City utility staff presented a multiyear wastewater strategy that pairs an immediate design push for the Eastern wastewater plant with a longer‑term plan to rehabilitate and relocate the aging Fisher wastewater plant.
Utility director Jim Parrish told the commission the Eastern plant — originally built in phases and now operating at 1.5 million gallons per day after a January 2025 expansion — uses membrane filtration and was designed for future buildouts. "So now it's time for us to start thinking about the next iteration and going to 3,000,000 gallons per day," Parrish said, describing a phased approach and an engineering RFQ the city plans to award in June.
Parrish said the city secured a $4,000,000 grant for Eastern’s design from the Department of Environmental Protection and budgeted $2,000,000 in matching funds for FY25/26. He described a typical project timeline of about 18 months to complete design work and an additional 24–36 months for construction — roughly five years from concept to finished plant at the stated schedule.
On Fisher, staff said the downtown‑area plant (built in 1958 and occupying roughly 3½–4 acres) is constrained by site size and proximity to nearby homes. Mead & Hunt’s preliminary design report recommended moving advanced treatment components to the Alexander Avenue facility, a 36‑acre city site with existing tanks and effluent disposal capacity. Parrish said replicating the Eastern processes at Alexander would improve resiliency, reduce noise and light impacts on neighbors and lower long‑term operations costs by standardizing equipment and spare parts.
Brad Blaze of Mead & Hunt (the engineer of record) told the commission that 30% plans are complete and 60% design is underway; staff said the project is planned for CMAR procurement and that construction could take about two to three years after final design.
Commissioners pressed staff about how the state’s 2045 nutrient‑reduction requirements translate to local decisions. Parrish said the mandate is measured in pounds of nitrogen and phosphorus removed at basin discharge points rather than a fixed count of homes converted to sewer, and that projects are credited toward basin‑level targets.
Why it matters: the combined Eastern and Fisher work is intended both to accommodate growth and to support the city’s response to state water‑quality targets tied to the Blue Springs Basin. The commission was given a proposed designer (Kimley‑Horn as the apparent RFQ frontrunner) and a timeline that would bring the city to construction readiness if approved. The commission did not take a formal vote at the workshop; staff said they will return with contract approval items in a future meeting.
