Hillsborough County's goal to become a regional economic hub based on the biotechnology industry will be enhanced with our focus today on building a clean, green environment. ...more

February 16, 2008

Seven years from now, a million gallons or more of reclaimed water per day could be flowing from a county wastewater treatment plant to the massive Hickory Hill subdivision planned for this tiny east county hamlet. ...more

February 14, 2008

Residents of the North River neighborhood like their lawns. There are 483 households in the affluent riverfront quarter and, according to city figures, residents there use more than 109,000 gallons of water a day to keep the grass green. ...more

January 8, 2008

Joseph Stapf is the county's new utilities director. County commissioners voted 5-0 Wednesday to approve Stapf, who replaces former director Kay Adams who died in May. ...more

December 13, 2007

County commissioners today are expected to hire Joseph Stapf as their new utilities director. ...more

December 12, 2007

SEBRING — The town of Lake Placid wants $2.7 million for a new water plant. ...more

December 6, 2007

SEBRING — Assessments of more than $5,000 on customers of the Thunderbird Hills Wastewater Treatment Plant may not be necessary to solve the long-standing problems at the plant. In an effort to eliminate, or at least minimize, the potential assessments, Highlands County commissioners agreed Tuesday to talks on a possible new solution. Next week, county officials will meet with representatives of Highlands Utilities, which runs a wastewater treatment plant serving 1,250 customers, including Lakeshore Mall and many businesses along U.S. 27. There will be one topic: arranging for the Highlands Utilities wastewater plant to treat the sewage from the nearby Thunderbird Hills plant, which has been operating without an operating permit from the state Department of Environmental Services for six years. ...more

December 5, 2007

SEBRING — Here's the upshot of Tuesday's Highlands County Commission meeting: the Thunderbird Hills South wastewater treatment plant has operated without a Department of Environmental Protection permit since 2001, it needs hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of repairs, and by January, Highlands County may be forced by state law to take over. ...more

November 21, 2007

SEBRING –– Wallace and Lillian Pechtel wish they could open their home's windows to catch the cool winter breezes. But, living in the Thunderbird Hills South mobile home park, that's something they rarely can enjoy. "We very seldom open our windows in the winter months, because of the smell," Lillian said. Referring to the problem plagued Thunderbird Hills Wastewater Treatment Plant, she added, "We definitely have an odor problem and it needs to be fixed." Odors from the treatment plant are not constant, Lillian said, but when it does stink "it's as if we were living next to a pig farm, that's what the odor is like." ...more

October 29, 2007

DeSOTO COUNTY - A worker servicing the county wastewater treatment plant's filters discovered the arm of a human fetus and placenta Saturday afternoon, Arcadia police said. ...more

October 16, 2007