I want to share an update with residents about a warning letter the city received from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection related to the East Water Reclamation Facility. This comes as the city continues work on the facility’s rebuild, one of the largest infrastructure projects in Winter Springs’ history. Here is what led to the letter and what it means going forward.

The warning letter is tied to a spill notification process, not a new spill or a failure to report one. The city’s operator notified FDEP and the State Watch Office of the spill within the required timeframe. The warning letter itself relates to a separate administrative step, a Public Notice of Pollution form, that was not completed on time. That form has since been submitted, and the operator is in direct communication with FDEP to close this out.

The East facility’s aging plants are already being replaced through the ongoing wastewater rebuild, and that work is underway. In the meantime, procedures like this one exist to keep everyone informed when something happens at the plant, and residents deserve to know when that process has an issue, even a minor administrative one.

City leadership has reiterated to the operator the importance of immediate communication whenever a reportable incident occurs, so residents and their elected officials are informed without delay. I will continue to push for that same standard of transparency going forward, and I will keep sharing what I learn as this process continues.