County commission asks for delay in St. George Island sewer project

County commissioners voted this week to send a letter to Gene Brown, the owner of the St. George Island Water and Sewer District, asking him to hold off on his plans to build a central sewer system in the business district of St. George Island. The board said it would like for him to delay his plans for a number of months while it continues to investigate what is causing bad water samples taken from popular beaches on the island. The central sewer project is being proposed to help Island restaurants who are facing state action because of undersized or non-functioning septic systems. One restaurant, the Subway on St. George Island, has already been closed down by the health department because of sewer issues. Central sewer proponents also feel central sewer may help stop many of the swimming advisories that have plagued the island in recent years. The cause of those swimming advisories, however, has not been fully investigated and the county would like time to complete their studies. On Tuesday, they heard from Seth Blitch from the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research reserve who said there may now be a plan in place to get much more thorough water samples from the island. That’s plan would include looking at the island in ten sections which would include a section focusing on the business district, a residential area, an area primarily filled with rental houses, and even the state park where there is no development. Water samples would then be taken from 3 sites on the bay side and the gulf side in each section to give researchers a clearer picture of where the pollution is coming from. The health department, which issues swimming advisories when bacteria is found in their water samples, only tests from 4 sites on the island and only on the Gulf of Mexico side. The big question now is how much the expanded testing will cost – Mister Blitch said he does not have an answer for that yet. The county said it can’t sign off on the expanded testing until it knows how much the tests will cost, and where the money will come from.