Clermont moves to unlock $15.66m for drinking-water upgrades
City of Clermont, Florida · Meeting date: October 27, 2026 · Published: October 28, 2026
Clermont City Council has commissioned Woodard & Curran to prepare a drinking water facilities plan, a required step for using a $15.66 million FDEP priority-list award under the Supplemental Appropriation for Hurricanes Helene and Milton programme.
Key points
- Council approved a Woodard & Curran task order capped at $300,000, to be reimbursed by FDEP under the SAHM agreement.
- The 30-week planning assignment will assess treatment, storage and distribution assets over a 20-year horizon.
- The plan must document hurricane impacts and match proposed works to SAHM-eligible project categories.
- An initial facilities-plan draft is anticipated by November 15, 2026.
Full report
Clermont City Council has approved a $300,000 task order for Woodard & Curran to prepare the drinking water facilities plan needed to support a $15.66 million Florida Department of Environmental Protection funding opportunity for system upgrades.
The city has been placed on FDEP's Drinking Water State Revolving Fund priority list for the award, which is funded through the Supplemental Appropriation for Hurricanes Helene and Milton programme. The facilities plan is required to establish eligibility for planning, design and construction of drinking-water capital improvements.
Woodard & Curran's work will cover existing water-treatment, storage and distribution assets, with a 20-year planning horizon. The consultant will assess system vulnerabilities, operational constraints, current and future service needs, regulatory requirements, and resilience opportunities related to extreme weather and long-term climate pressures.
The assignment includes evaluation of three improvement alternatives and preparation of AACE Class 5 order-of-magnitude cost estimates. The consultant will also review distribution-system hydraulics using city-provided usage, pressure or modelling information, including the impact of planned developments identified by Clermont.
A central component of the work will be documenting how individual projects qualify for SAHM funding. Woodard & Curran will compile evidence of hurricane impacts on the city's treatment plant and distribution system, potentially including storm-damage photographs, SCADA records, power-outage reports and operator logs. It will coordinate with FDEP, EPA, Lake County, electricity providers, FEMA and other stakeholders to support the eligibility case.
The facilities plan will also include an environmental information document, a business plan and public-outreach support. The business-plan scope includes project-cost breakdowns, financing structure, 20-year financial projections, revenue sufficiency, debt-service coverage, rate-adjustment planning, affordability analysis and cash-flow projections.
The task order is scheduled for completion within 30 weeks of notice to proceed. An initial draft is anticipated by November 15, with remaining elements completed for final submission to FDEP. The $300,000 contract is to be billed on a time-and-materials basis, with reimbursement to Clermont under the SAHM agreement.
This summary was generated by AI based on the source document and may contain errors.
Source: City Council Meeting, City of Clermont