Leon County Matches $4.5 Million in State Grants to Move 373 Homes From Septic to Sewer Near Wakulla Springs
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection matching grants, paired with $4.5 million from the county, fund two $9 million projects - Northeast Lake Munson and Belair/Annawood - expected to cut more than 5,000 pounds of nitrogen a year.
Leon County's septic-to-sewer work in the Wakulla Springs protection zone now has its full funding picture. The county received $4.5 million in matching grants from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for septic-to-sewer projects in the Wakulla Springs primary protection zone, and matched those grants with $4.5 million of its own, for two water quality projects totaling $9 million, according to the county's release.
The two projects are the Northeast Lake Munson Sewer System and the Belair/Annawood Sewer System. Together they will eliminate hundreds of septic tanks and extend central sewer service to approximately 373 residents in Leon County adjacent to Lake Munson who are currently on septic tanks. The county estimates the switch will reduce the total nutrient load by more than 5,000 pounds of nitrogen per year - the pollutant at the center of the long-running effort to protect Wakulla Springs and the county's other water bodies.
The projects were authorized during a June budget workshop, so the grant announcement is a funding milestone for work the county commission had already chosen. For the households involved, the change is practical as well as environmental: a central sewer connection replaces a private septic system the homeowner maintains, in an area where the springshed's geology makes what goes into the ground a public question as well as a private one.
