Cocoa Beach pursues nearly $15 million in SRF financing for water-reclamation and sewer repairs

Cocoa Beach — The City Commission approved requesting Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) financing to support a package of wastewater and collection-system projects totaling roughly $14,975,000.

Staff and consultant summary: Water-reclamation staff and consultant representatives outlined a list of projects eligible for low-interest SRF loans or funding, including clarifier rehabilitation, rehabilitation of lift stations (numbers 8, 14 and 16), improvements to the Port Canaveral force main, air-release valve replacements, stormwater pipelining and other lift-station and reclaimed-water system upgrades.

"The total of the projects that are included at this time that will be considered in this next hearing date are the clarifier rehabilitation, lift stations number 8, 14 and 16 rehabilitation, Port Canaveral force main, air release valve replacements, and stormwater park pipelining. The total of those projects is $14,975,000," the consultant said as part of the facility-plan update.

Financing and next steps: Staff said some portions of the program may be eligible for principal forgiveness and that SRF loans typically carry low interest (staff cited an estimate around 1% for eligible projects). The commission approved a selection of six firms to negotiate for sanitary sewer rehabilitation work tied to the inflow-and-infiltration abatement program and adopted the SRF resolution by unanimous vote.

The resolution directs staff to pursue SRF inclusion and return for project-specific authorizations and contract awards as funding agreements are finalized.