City of Pensacola Florida

For many of his 25 years in business, Sam Camariotes has heard talk about moving the infamously odorous wastewater treatment plant that operates just a few blocks east of his restaurant on Main and A streets near downtown Pensacola.

With federal, state and local funding lined up and a ceremonial ground-breaking on a new plant planned for Friday, Camariotes still remains skeptical.

"I'll believe it when I see it," he said.

Believe it, says Steve Sorrell, executive director of the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority.

By June 2010, a new plant in central Escambia County is expected to be up and running, a massive $302 million project that Sorrell said should please anyone concerned about Escambia County's economic and environmental future. It will replace the old Main Street wastewater treatment plant downtown.

Here's a summary of where the project stands:

n In about a week, crews will begin clearing the site for the new plant, near the Solutia Inc. plant off U.S. 29 in central Escambia County.

n Federal Emergency Management Agency officials have given the ECUA informal approval to move forward on the project, and several contracts will be advertised in coming months.

n The final design for all project elements is expected to be completed in about a month.

n About 90 percent of the land needed for right-of-way has been purchased. When complete, the project will comprise 25 miles of new pipeline, most of it 48 inches in diameter.

n Officials with the ECUA are finalizing plans for an effluent disposal plan that will make the plant a zero-discharge facility. Plans under consideration include disposing effluent into spray fields, infiltration basins or possible reuse by International Paper Co.

Gulf Power Co. also will take about 17 million gallons per day of treated effluent from the new plant and reuse it for generating electricity at its coal-fired Crist Power Plant, which is about three miles from the new ECUA plant site. Water that is not evaporated at Crist will be returned to the treatment plant.

"There will not be a direct surface-water discharge. It will be reused somehow," Sorrell said.

The Main Street plant currently discharges treated wastewater into Pensacola Bay.

Reusing water

The arrangement between the ECUA and Gulf Power means the Crist plant no longer will be drawing water from the Escambia River or discharging water into it, as it does now.

Some of the water diverted to Gulf Power's Crist plant will be used in the scrubbers that are being built to reduce sulfur dioxides, fine particulates and oxidized mercury emissions.

Gulf Power has applied for permits to inject water from the scrubber process into a deep well for disposal, and the state Department of Environmental Protection has indicated it intends to issue those permits, said Gulf Power spokesman John Hutchinson.

"Less than 2 percent will go to the scrubber process," Hutchinson said.

Solutia has used deep-well injection for several years, and Gulf Power will inject scrubber water into the same aquifer. Hutchinson said water from the scrubber process will have a high salt content, similar to the saltwater aquifer it will be injected into.

Bids on various parts of the project will be advertised over the next several months, Sorrell said, and he should know within nine months how close the project will come to its estimated $302 million price tag.

While labor costs are coming in less than originally projected, some of the materials crucial to pipeline and plant construction are skyrocketing, Sorrell said. In particular, concrete and stainless steel prices are up.

Offsetting costs

To offset concrete costs, the ECUA plans to set up its own mini concrete plant at the site of the new plant.

The Utilities Authority plans to keep the Main Street plant operating until the new plant is running smoothly. Residents are not expected to lose service during the transition from the old plant to the new, Sorrell said.

After several months of running both plants simultaneously, and provided there are no problems, the old plant will be shut down sometime in 2010. All buildings will be torn down and the site will be prepared for sale.

Demolition and remediation costs of the Main Street site are expected to exceed its sale price, Sorrell said.

A new lift station will be built across the street from the Main Street plant entrance, at DeVilliers and Government streets.

But Sorrell said it won't look or smell like a sewer treatment plant pump station. Odor scrubbers will eliminate the smell, and the pumps will be housed in a building purposely designed to fit in with downtown architecture.

"It's going to be the most beautiful pump station you've ever seen in your life," he said.

The station also will be equipped with emergency generators and backup pumps to eliminate problems like those created by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. The storm flooded the plant, shutting it down for three days and sending raw sewage into downtown streets and buildings.

In addition to eliminating that risk and the smell from downtown Pensacola, the new plant also will eliminate the need for septic tanks in future developments in the central part of the county, Sorrell said.

Camariotes of Sam's Seafood said he'll be happy if the new plant creates a boom along downtown's waterfront, as some have predicted. The key, he said, will be developments that attract more people downtown.

And he'll be pleased if his customers don't have to hold their noses on their way to his restaurant.

"It's definitely going to be a plus to move it, just from the odor factor," he said