ESCAMBIA COUNTY, Fla. — Right now, there are four projects underway throughout Escambia County to expand sewer access.<\/p>\n
Homeowners in the Beach Haven neighborhood say their septic tanks work great. Many say they had them installed within the past few years.<\/p>\n
“We got it pumped one time within the five years that we’ve been here,” Beach Haven resident Vincent Stewart said. <\/p>\n
They say that’s why a letter found in their mailboxes earlier this month came as a big surprise.<\/p>\n
“Everyone was wondering why these pipes were sticking up out of the ground, and now we know,” Stewart said. <\/p>\n
The letter says Florida law requires homeowners to connect to a public sewer system if there is one available.<\/p>\n
The joint improvement project between ECUA and Escambia County in the Beach Haven neighborhood is now complete.<\/p>\n
This means new sewer lines are ready for hookup.<\/p>\n
“I don’t really think it’s an improvement; it’s garbage,” Stewart said. <\/p>\n
Before the project kicked off, former Escambia County Public Works and ECUA held a public meeting.<\/p>\n
In 2017– the project manager describes hooking up to the new sewer system– as optional.<\/p>\n
“We’re putting in sanitary sewer. That’s gonna be available on the road that you’ll connect to if you choose,” Escambia County project manager said. “We’re not forcing that. If you choose to connect, there will be some cost benefits for you to do that.”<\/p>\n
Fast forward nearly a decade later– the improvements are complete, and residents say they feel blindsided.<\/p>\n
“I want to see better communication,” daughter of Beach Haven homeowner Lisa Leitermann said. <\/p>\n
“Spur of the moment, drop of the dime thing, I mean, as soon as they got done, here it is,” Stewart said. “They’re giving us what, 365 days and that’s what? A year.”<\/p>\n
Florida law also says the owner of the sewage system must tell homeowners at least one year before the sewer line is expected to be available.<\/p>\n
ECUA was able to provide the notification sent to property owners in three Brownsville sewer expansion projects.<\/p>\n
The utility says — in the Beach Haven neighborhood — notifying customers of the change fell on Escambia County — since it was a joint project.<\/p>\n
The county says public notifications were sent about the Beach Haven project.<\/p>\n
These notifications only outlined the construction project and did not touch on the septic-to-sewer requirements.<\/p>\n
County leaders also referred me back to the state statute — highlighting that the owner of the sewage system is responsible for notifying the affected customer of the required change.<\/p>\n
“I want to see them at least tap in and do it themselves,” Stewart said. “We shouldn’t have to pay for anything. We didn’t ask for this.”<\/p>\n
Stewart says he has called a plumber who quoted him $5,000 to connect his property to the sewer service line.<\/p>\n
WEAR News reached out to a local plumber who says the location of your septic tank is a factor in the price.<\/p>\n
“Length would be the biggest. If the tanks are in the front of the house, it’s going to be a shorter run,” American Leak DetectionTim Barnes said. “You’re going to get done quicker. You’re not going to have as much man hours in it. The further A is from B, the longer it’s going to take you, the more labor it’s going to cost.”<\/p>\n
ECUA says while state law requires homeowners to connect to the available sewer system, the utility does not enforce the law.<\/p>\n
Instead– that responsibility falls to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ESCAMBIA COUNTY, Fla. — Right now, there are four projects underway throughout Escambia County to expand sewer access.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-363788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}