Sewage Pumpers May Spew Forth Despite Proximity to Residences

Photo Credit: City documents
Several residential buildings are next door to the property. (Photo Credit: Google Maps)
View from E. South Street (Photo Credit: Google Maps)
View from S. Mills Ave. (Photo Credit: Google Maps)


The City of Orlando requested a site at the corner of E. South Street and S. Mills Ave. be changed from from Residential Medium Intensity to Public, Recreational and Instituational, with regards to future land use.

However, this future land use request change is not required for the city to build what they want to build on this site: a city lift station. 
"While public benefit uses, including a lift station, are allowed by the current future land use and zoning designations, this application is needed to ensure that property is used for public benefit in the future."
The city wishes to ensure that the property not return to residential medium intensity.

They say the site is ideal for a City Lift Station because it'd be "on a property that is exposed to high noise/dust from the abutting E-W Expressway, which renders the land less desirable for noise sensitive redevelopment uses." They also claim it "will buffer residential uses."

In 2007, on this land which the city claims is "exposed to high noise/dust", a 14-unit townhouse complex received a Determination to allow development. The project was never completed, but it shows the land isn't affected by the E-W Expressway to such a degree that residential activity should not take place on this site. 

Also, several residential buildings are next door and across the street from the property. 

What is a City Lift Station? According to Pollution Control Systems INC (Website) it is as follows: 
  1. Sewage lift/pump stations are used for pumping wastewater or sewage from a lower to higher elevation...
  2. Sewage lift stations/pump stations may be used as a matter of economics or to overcome inadequate hydraulic head when it is obvious that no other solution is practical. 
  3. Often called lift stations, units are commonly built as a factory assembled package system. 
  4. Key elements of lift/pump stations include a wastewater treatment receiving well (wet-well), equipped with lift pumps and piping with valves, a junction box, and an equipment control panel with alarm system.

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