Who Are We Talking To? The County vs. PSC

In the upcoming hearings, we’ll be talking with “the commission.” But who exactly are they? Many people mistakenly think we are talking to the County, as in the Charlotte County Board of County Commissioners (BCC). But that’s incorrect. We’ll be talking with the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC).

It is the Florida PSC who will be making the decision about whether EU gets certification for the Island service area or not. The PSC is a state regulatory agency governed by five appointed Commissioners. They oversee utilities that are not under the control of local or municipal government.

Charlotte County is our local government, presided over by an elected BCC. They have a utilities department for water and wastewater called Charlotte County Utilities (CCU). CCU does most of the central sewer installations in the County. They have no jurisdiction over private utilities.

So Why Isn’t Charlotte County Installing Central Sewer Here?

That’s where things get complicated. According to maps in the Charlotte County Sewer Master Plan, our Islands fall into CCU’s service area. But there are many regulations governing development on bridgeless barrier islands.

Charlotte County’s Comprehensive Plan – the body of local ordinances – prohibits extending central sewer to the Island. The County would have to amend the Comp Plan to allow central sewer here. This is why the private, for-profit EU is seeking certification of the service area from the Florida PSC.

EU has tried to make the argument that Islanders actually want central sewer, they just don’t want EU to install and maintain it. This is not true – our primary position is the lack of need for service. The most up-to-date, approved scientific testing can show pollutant sources accurately and there has been no testing indicating that our individual, on-site septic systems are releasing pollutants into local waterways or groundwaters.

If extensive testing was performed on our Island using scientific method protocols (such as shallow well testing), and it was determined that our waters were compromised, the Islanders would consider all of the environmentally sound alternatives including Distributed Wastewater Technology (DWT). These are the most advanced on-site treatment systems, and they remove up to 80% of pollutants from effluent. This is a much higher cleansing rate than the County’s closest wastewater treatment plant in Rotonda West. Learn more about why we don’t want a private, for-profit sewer >