INDIANTOWN — Indiantown will receive more than $17 million in state funding for major water infrastructure improvements, including a new reverse osmosis water treatment process and the replacement of a century-old water main, village officials said.
The funding was announced last month as part of a statewide package of infrastructure investments for rural and small communities unveiled by Gov. Ron DeSantis. In Martin County, Indiantown was among the communities selected for water system upgrades intended to improve reliability and long-term capacity.
Public Works Director Patrick Nolan said a key portion of the funding will support the development of a reverse osmosis water treatment plant, a necessary step as the village plans to draw water from the Floridan aquifer.
“It’s going to be a new water treatment process for the village of Indiantown, reverse osmosis, and the reason we’re going to a reverse osmosis treatment plant is because we will be drilling into the Floridan aquifer, which is brackish water, so it requires that type of treatment process,” Nolan said.
Nolan said the funding also provides immediate relief for longstanding infrastructure concerns, particularly the need to replace a major water main that has exceeded its lifespan and experienced repeated failures.
“That water main is over 100 years old. It has outlived its useful life by a lot,” he said. “We’ve had multiple water breaks on that line, so as time goes on, it’s only going to get worse.”
The water main slated for replacement serves as a critical component of the village’s water distribution network, supplying multiple neighborhoods along a key corridor.
“The significance of that is that is the backbone of the system,” Nolan said. “It runs parallel to 710 from Booker Park all the way down to Fernwood Forest developments, and so it’s a significant water main in the infrastructure here in the village.”
Nolan said replacing the aging cast iron pipe with newer materials will improve both water quality and system reliability.
“My job is to provide clean, safe water to the residents of Indiantown,” he said. “Replacing that water main is going to make that more reliable, more resilient, and with the newer infrastructure, we’re going to go from a 100-year-old cast iron main to PVC pipes, so we’ll have less instance of dirty water once that main is changed out.”
He said the improvements are also expected to support long-term economic development in the village.
“If you look at economic growth, infrastructure drives economic growth,” Nolan said. “When we have a more reliable water system, it should help in the long term for the village.”
While construction of the reverse osmosis facility remains several years away, Nolan said work on the water main could begin much sooner.
“We’re still in a design stage for the reverse osmosis plant, so we’re still a good two years out to constructing that plant,” he said. “Where the water main, we actually had already done the design for that; we just didn’t have any funding.”
Nolan said the village is also working toward a broader strategy for future improvements.
“Continue to fund infrastructure improvements whenever we can,” he said. “We’re in the process of developing a master plan, so we actually have a plan for the future.”
Indiantown was not the only Treasure Coast community included in the funding announcement. St. Lucie Village was awarded $12 million to build a centralized potable water supply system for public use.
“These infrastructure projects will help make Florida more prosperous, more resilient, and better prepared to weather any storms that may come our way," said Gov. DeSantis.