The village of Indiantown is taking a big leap forward this week as it breaks ground on its brand-new wastewater treatment facility, which village manager Taryn Kryzda says is a necessary step.
"The village acquired the water and wastewater facilities back in 2020 and at the time of acquisition they were aware of some needed upgrades, but we have realized through our continued analysis of the systems that they were in need of tremendous upgrades. With today's technology and the need to provide reliability for our residents, we determined that we were going to just do a completely redo," she said.
The new facility, which is expected to be operational by 2027 and cost 43 million dollars, will help carry the village into the future.
"This plant will be able to satisfy our village for hopefully the next 20 years. We have 2,500 homes at Terra Lago in our pipeline, and then we've got another 131 homes in River Oak with the possibility of some additional 100 or more homes that they have planned for their next phase," she said. "So we just want to make sure that as the village progresses, we are prepared for that and we have a system that can not only better serve the community that exists, but also can serve the community that's going to be coming to us."
Taryn said that the project could not have happened without some big help.
"We began sending in to the state appropriation requests back in 2022-ish, 2021, and we were allotted 18 million the first year and then 20 million the second year, and then we got another 5 million following on that for a total of 43 million," she said. "They recognized the need that we had. They recognized that there were some funding opportunities for the wastewater side, for the environmentally conscious side of funding, and so they worked with the village to put those grant requests in, the appropriation requests.
The state's assistance with the facility goes a long way in giving a leg up to an area that needs it.
"We've been a historically disadvantaged community from the standpoint that we have a higher than normal poverty level. We're in a position right now, I think, for the village to take the next step up and to demonstrate to Martin County, as well as the whole state, that when we receive funds from the state, we actually put them to good use, and now we actually have something coming out of the ground," she said.
Taryn said that the facility comes at a critical point in the village's growth that could not be ignored.
"If we had not received this funding from the state, we would be in a position where we would be having to probably levy additional taxes or some kind of a special assessment per household, per business, in order to get the funding to do the wastewater plant. We would have been in a position where we would not have been able to continue to provide services to our residents, which would be catastrophic when you think about not being able to effectively remove your sewer services or whatever those needs are," she said.
In addition to the wastewater facility, the village has its sights set on another major upgrade in this mission for independence.
"The water plant has the same issues, if you will, from being older and aged out and not being continually upgraded. There was not one piece of technology in that water plant, so everything was being done manually," she said.
Taryn said that the village was able to implement some upgrades to the water plant, which have now paved the road forward.
"That led us into a circumstance where we evaluated how much water we were able to provide on a daily basis and came to the realization that we were at capacity. Right now, our water plant is 1.2 gallons per day, and we plan on building a plant that will be at least 4.8 million gallons per day, with the ability to expand to 6.0 in the future," she said.
Why it all matters? The people, Taryn says.
"We need to do the best we can for the residents. They deserve that, and our future residents, too. They deserve to have reliable water source, plus know that the quality of their water. Our water today is drinkable. Absolutely, it's drinkable, but we could be doing better," she said.