Building work has been halted in a portion of Wakulla County. The 45-day construction moratorium came during Monday night’s (Aug. 1) county commission meeting. County Administrator David Edwards said the emergency measure only affects a relatively small area.
“From Crawfordville north up to Bloxham Cutoff. It’s all the new construction that has to do with commercial and residential properties that flows through one of our primary lift stations called the Hickory Park Lift Station.”
The problem, said Edwards, is that part of the county’s sewer network involving the Hickory Park Lift Station is nearing overload and has restricted flow.
“Even though we knew it was nearing capacity prior to this, then the flow reduced so we therefore had to take corrective measures.”
Edwards said the county is already moving to increase capacity, so the building moratorium might not last the full 45 days.
“We had fully expected this. This was nothing new. We understood that once the system reached near capacity we’d find some issues, which we did. But that’s the reason we looked hard at it. This is a precautionary move to go ahead and take care of it before we had a problem.”
All current construction in the affected area is now at a standstill and Edwards said he had already ordered that no new permits be approved for the time being. Meanwhile, the county will look at two large sewer system expansion projects that could be underway by early fall.
