A full year after a city sewer line became available to replace their antiquated septic tank, the Key West Yacht Club's sewer improvement plans are still not finished, no progress has been made on a pumpout system for the marina, and the work completed so far may have to be redone.
The private club was recently fined $4,150 by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for starting the job without a state permit, and has signed a consent agreement to insure the sewer work is finished properly.
The lengthy holdup was due for the first six months to "procrastination," according to Craig Cates, Commodore of the club. For the second six months it was "a minor mistake and a lot of paperwork," Cates said.
The "minor mistake" was the club's failure to obtain a DEP permit prior to installing lines and pumps capable of handling the club's estimated 9,000 gallons per day sewage load. The club is located on a low-lying peninsula in the northeast corner of Garrison Bight.
Garrison Bight is being tested weekly for fecal coliform bacteria, a sign that human sewage may be present. In mid-June, four Garrison Bight test locations, one only a few hundred feet from the Yacht Club, reported readings above the maximum coliform limit considered safe.
Public health officials recommend against swimming there, and say they would post warning signs if the bight were a popular swim area.
June's warm weather combined with still-leaking sewer lines has caused high coliform readings all around the island, said David Fernandez, City Utilities Director. "We still have definite problems, some of which we can attribute to liveaboards," he added.
The pumpout system planned for the Yacht Club would collect sewage from liveaboard vessels and would service boats returning from day trips or visiting from other yacht clubs. But Cates said the club is "not required" to have the system and he doesn't know when it will be constructed.
He agreed that abandoning a leaky septic tank and tile field and hooking up to the new line is required, and said the club failed to hook up last June because club officials had been promised by various members "they would do the job for free so we waited."
The City's Fernandez tired of the wait, and after months of letters and phone calls urging the club to do their duty, filed a Code Enforcement case last December, using a City ordinance which requires any property within 200 feet of a sewer main to connect.
Cates said he took over in January as Commodore and had Gary Centonze of Gary's Plumbing begin connecting the club house and bath house within weeks. That's when DEP stepped in, shutting down the job for the lack of a permit.
DEP first cited the City of Key West, the club's landlord. But city officials quickly dodged that bullet, insulating themselves behind the long-term, one-dollar-per-year lease held by well-heeled Yacht Club members.
State officials then contacted Gary's Plumbing, explaining their interest in the job, and worked with Cates and Centonze for the next three months, finally hammering out a consent order, signed by Cates on June 20. The order requires the club to hire an engineer to examine the work completed so far, compare it to state anti-pollution codes, then make any changes deemed necessary.
In earlier letters the state said collection lines were not buried deep enough, gravity lines had insufficient slope, and asked for more information on shutoff valves and how the newly installed sewage lines interact with potable water supply lines.
Fernandez' code enforcement case against the Yacht Club came before Special Master Jefferson Overby last week and was postponed when Centonze reported he could not proceed without the DEP permit.
The attitude at the hearing seemed to be that it was too bad DEP was being so tough on the Yacht Club by levying a fine and then slowing down the process with requests for more information.
But Dr. Abdul Ahmadi, a DEP administrator in Fort Myers, said the problems could all have been avoided had the Yacht Club simply applied for a permit last year.
The independent attitude at the club has caused problems in the past. When the club's septic system broke down in January of 1997, spewing raw sewage on the marina property, club officials approved work without permits then too. Armed only with a verbal okay for emergency repairs from the City Building Department, club officials did the repairs, then installed a complete new 100-foot-long drain field located only a few feet from Bight waters.
They failed to inform the State Health Department, which has jurisdiction over septic tanks. Department officials scolded the club, and instead of a fine, accepted a promise the club would connect to the City sewer system as soon as possible. But when the sewer line was finally available in June of 1999, the Yacht Club was not prepared with plans and permits.
The code enforcement case comes back before Special Master Overby July 25, and if the sewer hookup and removal of the old septic tank is complete, will probably be dismissed.
Still up in the air is when the pumpout station for Yacht Club liveaboards will be installed. The City's code enforcement case does not address that issue.
According to Code Enforcement officer Ron Clark, the club is approved for 10 liveaboard slips, but currently allows only seven. Clark said it is tough to prove who do are do not live on their boats, and if or when they are pumped out.
But Joe Pulvino, who operates the only pumpout boat in Key West, says he has never been called to the Yacht Club. Pulvino said he brought up the subject at a Port Authority meeting, and "nobody had any answers."
"At the next meeting I asked about it again, and nobody even answered my question, they just changed the subject," he said. Pulvino once had a growing business, but now works in the City Engineering Department and does his pumping after working hours. "There still isn't a whole lot of enforcement, so people just dump it over the side," he said.