County Finishing Up Drainage Project

BROOKSVILLE - Assistant County Engineer Gregg Sutton said the county is finishing up a $50,000 drainage improvement project in Mitchell Heights, located on the south edge of Brooksville near the former contaminated public works compound.

When completed, the neighborhood will have a new retention pond that should improve the drainage ditches and piping system along Bethune and D Streets. The end result should be improved stormwater management in that area, according to Sutton.

The Mitchell Heights project came about because of a missed deadline by the county to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

In 2005, DEP officials slapped the county with a $25,250 fine for missing mandatory site assessment reports.

Those reports detail the action the county's consultant - Brooksville-based Creative Environmental Solutions - is taking to clean up the contamination at the former public works compound at 201 West Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Rather than pay a fine, the county opted to do the in-kind drainage project that Sutton said benefits the immediate neighborhood.

Meanwhile, Sutton said the contamination cleanup is proceeding on schedule. Creative is concluding its recent round of soil testing and sampling.

Creative has already sent its most recent assessment report to DEP and awaiting a review from state officials as to the next phase of the cleanup.

"It will be (DEP's) determination that we have satisfactorily delineated the nature and extent of the contamination," Sutton said.

Once DEP gives the OK, it's on to the remediation stage.

"It's still a work in progress," Sutton said.

The DEP has not yet indicated when its analysis will be completed.

"The department is still reviewing and having internal meetings on the latest report," DEP spokeswoman Pamala Vazquez said.

County commissioners in August 2005 spent $77,000 to hire Creative -- its fourth consultant - to handle the cleanup.

Since then, the consultant has submitted 10 change orders and been paid more than $1.7 million.