A citizens’ revolt in a small Florida city ousted an entire slate of councilors who were pushing for a new sewage plant to be built close to one of the state’s most pristine and treasured rivers.
The Save Blackwater River campaign, in partnership with a citizen action group, toppled all four Milton politicians running for re-election last month in a remarkable victory for grassroots activism.
As a result, plans for the 25-acre wastewater treatment facility that was to have been constructed partly on wetlands feeding the environmentally sensitive river are in suspension.
And the new intake of Milton city councilors must work quickly with its other four members who were not up for election to decide how to deal with toxic effluent the previous panel wanted to spray on to fields that would, environmental engineers concluded, pose a likely threat to its drinking water.
“It’s almost a cliche to say it, but it really is a new day in this city,” said Pam Mitchell, co-founder of the Concerned Citizens of Milton group that helped promote the four new councilors, who are all residents or business owners there.
“The people here are very protective of their river and their community, and these elections showed that. And I think it just sets the work before us as grassroots organizations to educate the people how strong they’ve got to stay to stand up against the outside money that’s coming in here.”
Mitchell said nobody disputes that Milton’s existing sewage treatment plant, a downtown relic built more than six decades ago when the city’s population was less than half the 10,000 it is now, needs to be replaced.
The Florida department of environmental protection (DEP) has ordered the city to stop releasing treated effluent from it into the Blackwater, which is popular for fishing and other water-based recreation, by the end of next year.
But she said residents could not accept the city’s solution, namely the proposed new plant on a clay-based site vulnerable to flooding, close to the banks of the Blackwater, and which geologists hired by the citizens’ groups determined was a potential hazard to the river in the event of the failure of a sewer line running under it.
Outside developers, championed by some city officials and councilors, were in line for a lucrative payday to build the new, higher capacity plant, that protesters say was being railroaded through with insufficient discussion or input from residents.
The city, meanwhile, lost $9m in federal funding for the project for missing deadlines to submit detailed environmental impact assessments. And a succession of council meetings turned fractious, with Mitchell saying she was escorted from one by the local police chief after she was ejected for protesting a lack of public comment, and another ending in an alleged threat of violence against one council member by a Republican elected county official.
Ultimately, Mitchell said, Milton voters were worn out by the drama.
“The disorganization and dysfunction of the city council and administration over about six years has steadily gotten worse,” she said. “Now it’s time for us to walk the walk. Now the work really begins. We told the public what we were going to do, now we’ve got to show them we mean business.”
Working with the existing council members and staff to resolve the wastewater plant issue, including a search for a suitable new location, will be an early priority when the new faces are sworn in on 10 December.
More immediately, Milton must decide whether to press ahead with a $16m contract with a local company to use field spraying to disperse effluent otherwise destined for the Blackwater.
The Pensacola News-Journal reported in August that DEP had concerns about high levels of pollutants known as PFAs, or forever chemicals, seeping into the ground near aquifers and wells in Santa Rosa county that provide drinking water.
But if no contract is in place by the end of the year, the city is set to miss out on an expiring $5m grant from the American Rescue Plan Act intended to fund necessary improvements to water and sewer infrastructures at state and local government level.
“It’s a shambles,” Mitchell said. “They left it until the 11th hour and now they’ve allowed another deadline to sneak up on them. They were just ready to throw something out there and get it signed, it really doesn’t matter what it is, they just don’t want to lose the $5m.”
One of the incoming councilors, retired postal supervisor Larry McKee, told the Florida Phoenix that he would not be rushed into any decision, and wanted to avoid the mistakes of the previous chamber.
“I saw the dysfunctional family environment. I knew we needed a change. I don’t believe in fighting, I believe in figuring out what’s needed and getting it done,” said McKee, who had never previously run for office.
Another incoming council member, nurse Ashley Fretwell, expressed a similar sentiment, telling the Phoenix: “The public was not being heard. Nobody would listen to each other.”
Mitchell said their election was a victory for the entire Milton community. “The new faces are committed to doing their homework and research, while the prior council didn’t really ask questions,” she said.
“If the city manager said this was the best place in Santa Rosa county to put a wastewater plant, then, by golly, it was the best place, and they never would look at the data and the science that we put in front of them.
“This new council campaigned and won on a split platform of ending the dysfunction and siting the wastewater plant in an environmentally responsible location. It doesn’t mean they’re all going to blindly go in the same direction, but it does mean they’re not going to be calling one another names, and cussing and fighting all the time.”
