Resilience and climate-readiness – The project’s resilience features have been designed to protect against extreme weather events while maintaining operational continuity. These include enhanced flood protection through additional stormwater basins and elevated facilities one foot above the 100-year flood elevation; hurricane-resistant construction designed to withstand Category 5 sustained winds; and integrated real-time monitoring systems with automated alarms for immediate operator response.

Advancing infrastructure integration – Related to the features outlined above, the project includes integration of all equipment into the facility’s and the County’s centralized SCADA system and computerized maintenance management system for asset management. The redundancy of the servers that handle facility operation functions, and use of uninterrupted power supplies and programming for process controls, reduce the facility’s risk of failure.

Quality of life benefits – The project was driven by a community-wide commitment to improve water quality in response to harmful red tide events that had significantly impacted Sarasota County’s waterways and coastal areas. Standard wastewater treatment facilities remove harmful pollutants but still contribute nutrient loadings, primarily nitrogen and phosphorus, to the County’s waterways which can flow to the Gulf of Mexico. These nutrients exacerbate algal blooms that can harm public health and local economies. This project significantly reduces nutrient contributions to local waterways, supporting healthier ecosystems, enhancing quality of life, and reducing the risk of harmful red tide events.”

Leadership and collaboration – The project team periodically revisited project sustainability commitments throughout project delivery. Monthly meetings were held on a consistent basis to discuss sustainability approaches and how they are being implemented throughout the duration of the project. This project was organized to give priority to long-term community sustainable development, and it ultimately addresses an inherently unsustainable condition: the increasing presence and duration of algal blooms impacting the County waterbodies that are crucial to the region.

Preserving and protecting water resources – The increase in reclaimed water availability with this project will allow for a reduction of potable water use for irrigation purposes in the watershed. The conversion to advanced water treatment will remove nutrients and pathogens from the effluent of the facility resulting in a high-quality effluent that will positively impact receiving water bodies. The project also includes comprehensive plans for spill and leak prevention, hazardous materials management, and erosion control management that reduce the potential for contamination of surface or groundwater bodies during construction and operations.