(The Center Square) – A report by the Florida auditor general’s office found numerous financial and accountability issues with the city of Milton over its construction of a new wastewater treatment plant.
Auditors said the northwest Florida city and seat of Santa Rosa County wasn’t compliant with a Florida Department of Environmental Protection consent order about the existing plant and its discharge into the nearby Blackwater River.
They also said Milton needed a comprehensive multi-year capital plan that included the proposed treatment plant, on which the city has already spent $4.8 million without starting construction.
According to the report, city officials may have forfeited some funds to complete the project due to a lack of established grant policies and procedures.
Auditors also questioned why the city hadn’t conducted periodic water and sewer services rate studies and found that officials didn’t remember the last time the city had performed one.
The report says officials didn’t take advantage of sales tax exemptions to directly purchase construction materials for the project and needed to improve city policies for contracted services, land acquisition and conflicts of interest.
In June 2020, Florida environmental regulators ordered the city to cease discharging wastewater into the nearby Blackwater River in two phases.
The city was to reduce treated wastewater discharges by 50% to a new treatment plant or land application by Dec. 31, 2023. Under the second phase, the city would be required to divert 100% of the flow to the new plant by Dec. 31, 2025. The city requested and received approval to delay that to June 18.
According to the report, the city began work on the wastewater treatment plant in 2009 and contracted with an engineering firm in Aug. 2011, but the plans were put on hold for several years. In October 2019, engineers estimated the plant would cost $33.6 million, but the city rejected all the bids.
City officials later expanded the scope of the project with increased plant capacity, additional spray fields and piping and the decommissioning of the existing treatment plant. In March, that project was estimated to cost $96 million.
The city rebid the project in August with an October 2024 response deadline and officials say the city will be fully compliant with the state order by 2028.
The city said in its response letter that it will comply with the auditors’ recommendations by January if not before.
