🌿Nature Coast Digest
Your weekly guide to Florida's Nature Coast
✅ Local news ✅ Events ✅ Things to Do ✅ History ✅ and more!
The Rooks–Cedar Lakes project will connect the Old Homosassa property to Citrus County’s sewer system as part of a broader septic-to-sewer effort. Nature Coast Digest graphic.
Another piece of Citrus County’s effort to move Old Homosassa properties off septic systems is moving forward.
Citrus County is moving forward with a $1.26 million construction contract with Bulldog Sitework LLC for the Rooks–Cedar Lakes Mobile Home and RV Park septic-to-sewer project. The work will connect the property’s wastewater system to the county sewer system and remove its existing on-site treatment facility.
The project is part of a larger effort to reduce nutrient pollution reaching the Homosassa River and springs by replacing septic and small wastewater systems with connections to centralized sewer.
What’s being built
The project is more involved than simply running a sewer line to the property.
Plans call for demolishing the existing on-site wastewater treatment facility, replacing the existing lift station and building a new lift station. The project also includes approximately 640 feet of 4-inch force main and 3,500 feet of 6-inch force main, which will connect to an existing 8-inch force main.
Bulldog Sitework submitted the lowest of seven bids received for the project. County consultant Jones Edmunds reviewed the company’s bid, qualifications and references before recommending Bulldog for the work.
Why Old Homosassa is getting sewer
The project is about more than replacing aging wastewater infrastructure.
State environmental documents identify the Homosassa Springs Group as impaired because of excessive nitrate concentrations.. As part of efforts to restore the Homosassa-Chassahowitzka springshed, state and local officials have prioritized moving properties from septic and smaller wastewater systems to centralized sewer service.
The goal is to reduce the amount of nitrogen and other nutrients reaching groundwater and, ultimately, the springs and river. The Rooks–Cedar Lakes connection is one piece of that larger Old Homosassa septic-to-sewer effort.
The bigger picture
Rooks–Cedar Lakes isn’t the only septic-to-sewer project moving forward in Old Homosassa.
In July, Citrus County commissioners unanimously approved an amendment adding $4.33 million in state funding to the separate Old Homosassa East Septic to Sewer Project, bringing total state funding for that project to about $8.83 million.
That project is intended to extend the county wastewater system through the Downtown East area, potentially making sewer service available to up to 200 existing residences and approximately 226 vacant lots along the Homosassa River.
Although the two projects have separate scopes and funding, both are part of the larger effort to move more of Old Homosassa onto centralized wastewater service.
What happens next
The Rooks–Cedar Lakes contract gives the contractor 240 days from the county’s notice to proceed to reach substantial completion, followed by another 30 days for final completion.
The broader state grant supporting the Rooks–Cedar Lakes work currently runs through Oct. 31, 2028.
Nature Coast Digest will keep an eye on the project as construction gets underway, including any road impacts or other changes that could affect Old Homosassa residents.