By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
Chiefland City Commissioner Rollin Hudson Monday proposed applying for state or federal grants to possibly extend city water and sewer lines down Manatee Springs Road as far west as Hideaway and Springside Adult Mobile Home Parks.
Mayor Chris Jones instructed City Manager Laura Cain to contact the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) to get a sense of what would be needed to make the water and sewer extension possible.
Cain said she would contact SRWMD Assistant Director Tim Alexander and would work to coordinate his schedule with a representative from Mittauer and Associates, Inc., the engineering firm the city uses for most of its projects, to kickstart the process.
Hudson believes those communities would benefit from high-quality Chiefland drinking water, as well as a good municipal central sewer system.
Springside and Hideaway are a short distance from the entrance to Manatee Springs State Park. The park’s spring run has been impacted by high nitrate concentrations in the water. Residential septic tanks and farming are thought to be two of the main contributors of nitrates.
In the 1990s White Feedlot, situated across from Chiefland Golf and Country Club on Manatee Springs Road, was cited for contributing high nitrate concentrations to residential water wells along Clay Landing Road. The feedlot property is a short distance from Manatee Springs State Park and borders Clay Landing Road. The company was required by the state to provide bottled drinking water to the affected homeowners.
Hudson said providing city sewer to Hideaway and Springside could reduce the nitrate load in the spring run. He hasn’t ruled out offering central city water and sewer to residents living in subdivisions off Manatee Springs Road. He said it would depend on what would be required of the city to add those subdivisions to the city utilities system and whether there might be restrictions regarding how far the city could provide services off the main road. He doesn’t know if annexation would be needed.
The Levy County Commission currently provides water services to Hideaway and Springside as a result of the original owner of the system defaulting. The county was required by state law to take over the operation of the system. Hudson says he thinks the county would love the city to take over the operation of the water system.
Hudson said there is an ongoing push by the state to eliminate septic tanks.
“They really don’t want people having septic tanks,” he said.
Attorney Blake Fugate, sitting in for his father, City Attorney Norm Fugate, said Inglis planned to build a $100 million sewer system. The city was dealing with some of the same issues. Inglis doesn’t have a sewer system.
“Sooner or later you’re not going to be able to do a septic tank. You’re going to have to be hooked to some kind of treatment plant,” he said. “I don’t think you can put in the old septic tanks. You got to put in the new souped-up tanks that do it all on its own. It has special powers.”
He doesn’t know if the proposal to eliminate septic tanks entirely will take shape anytime soon. He said it could take 30 years to get to that point.
Hudson’s utilities extension plan is in the idea stages. He joked with the commission about going off on his “tree-hugger side.”
No one objected to or criticized his proposal.
The idea of running water and sewer lines down Manatee Springs Road was discussed many years ago by the Chiefland City Commission, long before any of the current commissioners sat on the board. They also discussed the possibility of annexing property in the Manatee Springs Road area, but the idea was never more than a discussion and didn’t take root. Costs were a factor and state and federal water quality grants weren’t as plentiful.
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City of Chiefland Regular Meeting January 9, 2023; Posted January 11, 2023
