The Utilities Department, during the past year was the recipient of two significant awards. The North Hutchinson Island system received the David York Award. The David York Award is awarded annually by the Department of Environmental Protection, in conjunction with the Florida Water Environment Association, and recognizes exemplary reclaimed water systems. St. Lucie County was recognized for the implementation and operation of the North Hutchinson system and selected as the best in the state for our size. This is quite an achievement because to receive the award requires excellent record keeping and superior daily operation of the entire wastewater system. The award also considers the significant benefits that the system provides to the environment, with the North Hutchinson system, the reclaimed water is provided for irrigation to our residential customers and in turn reduces our demand on the domestic water supply which previously supplied the irrigation needs on the Island. The second achievement was recognition of the South Hutchinson Island system with the Water Conservation 2000 Award, again for conservation of our domestic water supply by providing reclaimed water for residential irrigation on South Hutchinson Island. The award is presented in conjunction with the Florida Water Wise Council and represents outstanding operation of the system and significant environmental benefits to the community. South Hutchinson Island was ranked in first place in the State of Florida for utilities of similar size. Both of these awards represent a tremendous effort of everyone involved from our operation and maintenance contractor to our engineers, utility staff, county staff, our Board of County Commissioners and especially our customers and users of the system. 

Utilities continues to realize significant growth in all systems that we operate and maintain. As a result of the continued growth activity in the systems, the Utility Department is underway with various capital improvements throughout the systems. We are currently working on improvements of the collection and conveyance system on North Hutchinson Island and completing plans for improvements at the wastewater treatment facility that will include new reclaimed water distribution pumping and controls, modifications to the head works and digesters that will improve air quality, domestic water ground storage tank and additional office space and storage. Utilities successfully negotiated a new bulk water agreement with Fort Pierce Utility Authority that will provide water for the Island for the next five years. The new agreement provided for a decrease in the bulk rate that the system previously paid for water and new terms of the agreement provide for increases that will be based on the Public Service Commission Indexing, a standard utilized throughout the State of Florida for utilities.

The South Hutchinson Island system is currently underway with a feasibility study for supplemental wells for our reclaimed water system. The fresh water lens has been identified in the vicinity of the wastewater treatment plant and the next phase, Spring 2001, will include installation of a test well and analysis of the existing ground water. Once this project is completed the system will have the ability to subsidize the reclaimed water in the summer