2010-252A (17) - Laserfiche WebLink

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Water transportation is provided on the Intracoastal Waterway in the Indian River Lagoon. This federally maintained water route traverses the length of the county. The nearest deepwater ports are located at Ft. Pierce to the south and Port Canaveral to the north. In Indian River County, rail service is provided by the Florida East Coast Railroad (FEC). The FEC maintains single and double tracks just west of and parallel to US 1. The nearest FEC freight yard is in Ft. Pierce. Aviation, Ports, and Rail issues are also discussed in the Transportation Element. Sanitary Sewer Generally, wastewater is a service that has traditionally been supplied by local government. In addition to the more technologically sophisticated and efficient central systems, traditional methods of wastewater treatment, including septic tanks, are still employed in Indian River County. The primary purpose of wastewater treatment is to remove solids and toxic chemicals from wastewater and render organic wastes inert. After treatment, the resulting water product is then reintroduced into the natural water cycle. Presently, there are five publicly operated regional wastewater treatment plants operating in the county. Four of those plants are operated by the Indian River County Utilities Department, while the other plant is operated by the City of Vero Beach. There are also three privately -operated package treatment plants in the county. While the county operated plants provide a level of service of 250 gallons/residential unit/day, the city operated plant provides a level of service of 197 gallons/residential unit/day. The combined design capacity of the regional plants is 13,370,000 gallons/day, an amount sufficient to accommodate their combined average daily demand of 8,274,000 gallons/day. Currently, the service area of the regional system includes substantial portions of the urban area of the county. As such, wastewater lines extend to much of the county's urban area, including portions of all three of the commercial/industrial nodes along I-95. In 2006, the county utilities department had 24,250 sanitary sewer customers. With respect to septic tanks, the Indian River County Public Health Unit, Division of Environmental Health, currently estimates that there are approximately 36,039 septic tanks in use in Indian River County. While approximately 1,272 new septic tanks were installed in 2006 in the county, that number has decreased significantly in more recent years as the level of residential construction has declined. Within the county, many of the older residential areas were developed with well and septic tank systems on lots which, by today's standards, are small in size. The small lot size in those areas Future Land Use Element 63