Okaloosa County is celebrating the completion of a nearly 12-mile reclaimed water pipeline with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday morning in Niceville. The new pipeline will allow some Niceville area residents and businesses to use treated wastewater for landscape irrigation, reducing the need to drill more wells into the aquifer.
The pipeline project has been in the works for the better part of a decade, approved in 2014.
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It included upgrades to the county’s Arbennie Pritchett Water Reclamation Facility in Fort Walton Beach and construction of an 11.6-mile pipeline to the city of Niceville.
“They were needing supplemental, reclaimed water for irrigation,” said Mark Wise, deputy director of the Okaloosa County Water and Sewer Department, which led the project. “So they have the need, we have the supply. And, that's probably a brief version of the project.”
Okaloosa County crews began installing the 20-inch pipeline, with its signature purple color, in 2021. It came online in July of this year.
Wise says the reclaimed water is treated at the Arbennie Pritchett plant, sent through the pipeline, which runs through the Eglin Reservation, and discharged into a large lagoon in Niceville for distribution by the city's water and sewer department.
“Then from there, they pump it to their customers and their irrigation sites,” Wise said.
“What they send out goes to mostly subdivisions, but some of its businesses, and some of it is ball fields, like, the Twin Oak site, where there's a lot of soccer fields and baseball fields in Niceville, that's all watered with reclaimed water.”
“So, the reclaimed water opportunity, in Okaloosa County, first and foremost, it's a partnership,” said Trey Goodwin, chair of the Okaloosa County Commission. “It's a partnership between the county's water utility, the City of Niceville, and also includes Eglin Air Force Base.”
Additionally, the $12.8 million project was made possible by funding from various partners.
“The Northwest Florida Water Management District has kicked in at least $2.5 million, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection $3 million, and then Okaloosa County, sourcing its own funds for the remainder,” Goodwin stated. “And of that money, about $3 million was used towards facility upgrades at the plant that are needed to supply the reclaimed water. The remainder is pipeline construction.”
This reuse of reclaimed water is a project that has economic and environmental benefits, according to county officials.
Most importantly, it ensures a sustainable and cost-effective water supply. It reduces the degradation of local waterways and increases the amount of water put back into the groundwater system.
“This project helps distribute that reclaimed water over a wider area and recharge a broader, swath of the groundwater system in our community,” said Goodwin. “From the environmental perspective, it's really, a very big benefit, from that standpoint. And then economically, it assists the business community, the neighborhoods, the homeowners, and ultimately, the city, because it replaces the need to have standalone, irrigation wells or, even in some cases, the need to have use of your potable water for irrigation.”
This kind of project is a good fit for the Northwest Florida Water Management District, which helped with funding.
“The Water Management District's mission is to protect and preserve the quality and quantity of water in Northwest Florida,” said Communications Director Jim Lamar, adding that much of their focus is on the future.
“Part of our mission is to do what we call a water supply assessment, every five years. So we ensure that we look forward 25 years down the road with projections based on population and demands to make sure there is an adequate supply of water. “
Okaloosa County is also looking to the future, exploring expansion to areas that can be reached by a pipeline from the Arbennie Pritchett Water Reclamation Facility, which is the county’s largest such plant and most modern.
“The reality is, the easiest expansion is probably in the Niceville area first, right, because we've got the main pipeline there,” said Chairman Goodwin.
Nearby Valparaiso is also a future possibility.
“But certainly obvious next steps would be looking at unincorporated Okaloosa County, here in the south end of the county, and then potentially Eglin Air Force Base,” he added.
“Futuristically and speaking much longer term, north of Eglin Air Force Base, as those plants are upgraded and become more suitable for this type of thing, I think we'll see future opportunities to partner there, as well.”
Down the road, Goodwin suggests there might be opportunities for reclaimed water projects involving the planned Shoal River Wastewater Treatment Plant, which is needed to handle growth in the Crestview area.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the recently completed reclaimed water pipeline will be held at the Mullet Festival site in Niceville beginning at 10 a.m.
