What You Can Do

pen calendar to do checklist

  Here is a partial list of professionals to contact! Please feel free to INCLUDE (cc) the mayor (Demmings) in any or all that you wish.  His email is mayor@ocfl.net.  He knows me (from all of my visits to the Board of Commissioner meetings). You may also want to CC Commissioner Gomez-Cordero and her aide, Phillip DeToldedo.

District4@ocfl.net  and Phillip.DeToledo@ocfl.net

I have highlighted in RED

 major points, for a short email.1.) EPA –  Water Reclamation Pipe discovered in Eastwood

As I mentioned, we discovered an effluent pipe whose source is the neighboring reclamation facility. Its 4ft wide discharge is concealed under water at Lake 21. I have attached my formal complaint which I filed with the EPA. You could use this or craft a much shorter one of your own. Talking points?  The HOA needs physical verification that this pipe CANNOT be used in the future. Given it was never legal,  “taking their word for it” that it is capped, is not right or appropriate. The ECA has confirmed that part of this pipe lies on ECA property (confirmed with Richard today), and the HOA never signed an easement agreement or were notified that an easement existed. We need to know where it travels from the EWRF underground, and where its “control valves” are located which were mentioned in the 1995 Water Reuse Agreement. 

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David M. Apanian, P.E., MSCEE

Region 4 ICIS-NPDES Data Administrator

Enforcement & Compliance Assurance Division

Mailing:

EPA – ECAD

David Apanian

61 Forsyth Street SW, 9T25

Atlanta, GA 30303

Office:                  (404) 562-9477

apanian.david@epa.gov

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2.) Florida Department of Environmental Protection – The water reclamation facility cannot keep expanding its capacity here in the Econ River Basin.

 They are discharging their reclaimed water into wetlands, and their total discharge of reclaimed water, HERE IN THE BASIN, keeps growing. This process (growing output of water) is taking away natural flood protection (water holding capacity which naturally occurs- such as wetlands) that is needed here in the Basin to prevent flooding to residential neighbors during the rainy season. To make things worse, the EWRF continues to generate its own additional water, during the difficult rainy season, by processing sewage.  All this water is forced to enter the same tributary that the Eastwood and Stoneybrook East communities rely on, to drain their stormwater. **EWRF permit changes and monitoring records submitted to the FDEP give evidence to this trend***This additional flow has the obvious negative result of river “staging.”

 As the volume of water which is entering the river increases, it swells the river. It will allow for water to go past normal dry season terminus points. This is very detrimental for the community of Eastwood, who lies at the terminus of the Econ’s tributary. We saw evidence of this occurrence in many places in Orange Co during Ian. 

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Here is a link to FDEP Directory: 

https://floridadep.gov/central/central/content/staff-contact-information

I have spoken to :

David Smicherko – Environmental Manager who oversees permits and expanded permits for EWRF

David.Smicherko@FloridaDEP.gov

407-897-4169

You could also CC these contacts:

Charles LeGrosCharles.LeGros@FloridaDEP.gov

DEP Central District Office

Leo Anglero

Leo.Anglero@FloridaDEP.gov – Engineering Specialist who oversees permit changes

Keep a close eye on various communication platforms for information and potential action steps you can take… as they come up! Directory of Contacts and Information Sites

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