The Apopka Chief and WESH 2 News organized a mayoral debate on Feb. 3 (to watch it, search “Apopka mayoral debate” on YouTube). Since then, the Chief has been running a weekly Q&A focused on issues that were not covered during the debate. This week’s question is as follows:  

How would you manage the repair and restoration of the Golden Gem Water Reclamation Facility, and what would you do to mitigate the effects of future sinkholes at the site? 

Answers are presented in alphabetical order. 

Christine Moore, Orange County commissioner 

For those who aren’t aware of the severe problem — St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) for nearly 20 years has sought to partner with the city on building a water reclamation facility off Golden Gem Road. A pipeline from Altamonte Springs has also been constructed to take Altamonte’s sewer water, treat it, and store it in this pond. 

Funds for the high cost of construction of the facility has proven elusive for nearly two decades. The various elevations of lakes and karsts in the geographic area have even challenged construction of S.R. 429. I am told that the collapse was due to excessive removal of soil. I read the initial report from Universal Engineering, which recommended outside engineering prior to excavation. I’m told this didn’toccur. This catastrophe reminds me of the Border Lake flooding, where the county had to step in with engineering plans and repeatedly prodded Mayor Nelson to action. 

I’m not pleased with the level of transparency and information coming from the Nelson administration. There should have been multiple follow-up briefings for commissioners and the public. Keeping commissioners and the public in the dark has occurred way too frequently. Thankfully, I sought out a public record from SJRWMD to better educate myself. 

What is needed now are additional opinions and courses of action from qualified engineers. The Golden Gem Pond remediation has enormous potential financial repercussions for our citizens. I believe this issue alone, if the gravity of the situation was clearly understood, should cause voters to select a new leader. 

Bryan Nelson, mayor 

The Golden Gem reclamation facility was created in partnership with the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) over 10 years ago. The facility will have the ability to store almost 350 million gallons of water to be used for irrigation in the northwest quadrant of the city.  

After filling the larger 300-million-gallon pond, a sinkhole opened up, draining the pond and ripping the liner. We hired a contractor to fill the sinkhole and are now working on a permit to fix the larger pond. The smaller 50-million-gallon pond has seams that have separated, and we are waiting on a permit to line the pond with a new material. At the same time, we are designing a pump station to be able to push water from the facility to the neighborhoods in the northwest part of the city.  

Ultimately, we will be able to store water from the rainy season and distribute the reclaimed water to the neighborhoods in the dry seasons. Our goal is to have one billion gallons of storage city-wide, almost the entire usage of reclaimed water for a year, which will reduce or eliminate our need for pulling water out of the ground for irrigation. 

Nick Nesta, city commissioner 

The Golden Gem Water Reclamation Facility is a two-pond, 350-million-gallon project that has been purposefully delayed and cost the residents millions of dollars in additional costs due to mismanagement and failed leadership. The sinkhole did occur due to negligence and not an act of God. It was due to improper installation of the liner of the larger pond and failed drainage system.  

Once elected, I will bring in an independent third-party vendor that specializes in projects of this size and complexity and will assist in a properly designed bidding process to ensure the project is completed on time and on/under budget. 

The residents will be spending millions and millions of dollars to finally finish this project,  and they deserve to have a timeline that is committed to and achieved. I will be reaching out to our federal partners to assist with funding, as this has been a costly, mismanaged project that needs to be completed.  

When we get this facility online, the residents will no longer experience lack of water pressure and water access issues; we will be able to serve our current residents as well as the new ones that are moving to our city.  

While our residents are my top priority, the city of Apopka also has agreements with other local municipalities to take their excess water. The city of Altamonte Springs recently sent a letter stating that we are not upholding our side of the agreement. We need to be good neighbors to our bordering municipalities and follow through on the agreements we have set in place.  

Proper leadership will get this project across the finish line and will serve as an asset to Apopka residents.