Vero Beach officials had something more to celebrate this holiday season.
Five days before Christmas, they received a call from their Tallahassee lobbyist, who told them the city had been awarded another $3.7 million grant from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to help fund construction of its new wastewater treatment plant.
The award – from the FDEP’s Indian River Lagoon Water Quality Improvements Grant Program – was part of an overall $5 million grant. The other funds were designated for septic-to-sewer projects in the city.
“We feel like Santa came early for Vero Beach,” City Manager Monte Falls said.
The latest award raises to $41.3 million the total amount of state and federal grant money the city has received to help fund the anticipated $164 million cost of the wastewater-treatment plant project.
It reduces the city’s projected cost to $122.7 million.
However, both Falls and City Water & Sewer Director Rob Bolton said the city’s costs could be further reduced before the construction of the new facility is completed in early 2028.
Falls said the city will apply for additional FDEP grants in 2026, and Bolton said he doesn’t expect to need all $11 million in contingency funds he included in his cost estimate for the project.
“As long as we have projects that are eligible, we’ll apply,” Falls said, explaining that the FDEP application portal opens in the summer, awards are made in the fall and recipients are notified in mid-December.
This was the fifth FDEP grant awarded to the city for its wastewater-treatment plant, which is being relocating from its longtime lagoon-front site – immediately south of the western end of 17th Street Bridge – to the Vero Beach Regional Airport, near the intersection of U.S. 1 and Aviation Boulevard.
Relocating the plant is necessary for the city’s planned development of the Three Corners site into a dining, retail, social and recreational hub on the mainland’s waterfront.
In March, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced FDEP had awarded the city an additional $11.3 million from the lagoon program. The funding was part of the state’s overall mission to improve Florida’s water quality and supply by stripping away harmful nutrients.
Falls said being notified of the $3.7 million FDEP grant last week was a nice way to end a sometimes-challenging year.
“Even with all the distractions we’ve had to overcome,” Falls said, “we’ve got the wastewater-treatment plant under construction, we received the grants we applied for, we’re just about finished with the first phase of the marina expansion, and we’re where we expected to be with the Three Corners project, preparing to begin negotiations with our developer.”
