JOINT FEDERAL, STATE, LOCAL
PUBLIC NOTICE
April 25, 2025
The Federal Emergency Management Agency and Florida Division of Emergency Management have received the following application for Federal grant funding. Final notice is hereby given of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) consideration to provide funding in the form of Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. Funds will be provided in accordance with Section 404 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, Public Law 93-288, as amended.
Under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), federal actions must be reviewed and evaluated for feasible alternatives and for social, economic, historic, environmental, legal, and safety considerations. Under Executive Order (EO) 11988 and EO 11990 FEMA is required to consider alternatives to and to provide public notice of any proposed actions in or affecting floodplains or wetlands.
Funding for the proposed project will be conditional upon compliance with all applicable federal, tribal, state and local laws, regulations, floodplain standards, permit requirements and conditions.
Applicant: Charlotte County
Project Title:
HMGP-4734- 0026-R (109) – Charlotte County, Lift Stations, Generators
Location of Proposed Work:
LS # 10 - 21569 Gibralter Dr. Port Charlotte, Fl 33952 (26.994454, -82.089662)
LS # 44 - 370 Atwater St. Port Charlotte, Fl 33954 (27.021340, -82.113128)
LS # 63 - 23400 Harold Ave. Port Charlotte, Fl 33980 (27.014151,-82.059389)
LS # 136 - 16479 Franklin Ave. Port Charlotte, Fl 33953 (27.017108,-82.174911)
Proposed Work and Purpose:
The identified lift stations provide a critical function of lifting the wastewater to ensure a continuous flow of the solid wastewater system. These stations provide the pumping necessary to raise liquids from lower elevations to higher elevations. Lift station pumping must be reliable and continuous in order not to cause system distress and sanitary system overflow. In the event of a power outage, lift stations can experience interruptions in pumping due to mechanical and electrical failures, which would therefore cause an increased risk of hazardous waste material tipping over, causing an environmental disaster. The generators requested will ensure the continuous service of 4,018 customers during a disaster and prevent overflow of the lift stations and a potential environmental disaster.
This project will include the purchase of four permanent generators with accompanying fuel tanks and level 2 sound enclosures including attenuation and motorized dampers. This includes mounting pads, transformers, trenching and transfers switches. This will ensure reliable power for a prolonged power outage to support the County's function before, during and after a disaster event.
Project Alternatives:
If no action is taken, the Lift Stations would not have back up power to continue to provide the critical function of sanitary flow. This would put at risk the potential overflow of hazardous waste materials into local neighborhood, streets and waterways, causing an environmental disaster.
A possible Alternative would be to supply mobile backup generators to each site in order to continue the ongoing required critical function of running the lift stations to avoid the leaking of sewage. This alternative would require Charlotte County to anticipate which lift station is in need of mobile generator prior to a storm and to stage a mobile generator in a nearby facility. This alternative would have significant environmental risks if the mobile generators are not deployed in a timely manner and are delayed in getting to the site due to storm damage. This action would impact the Lift Stations resulting in power outages during the same time period of a disaster. There is a risk of overflow of the hazardous human waste material that would require significant clean up and could cause environmental harm to the area.
Comment Period:
Comments are solicited from the public; local, state or federal agencies; and other interested parties in order to consider and evaluate the impacts of the proposed project. The comments should be made in writing and addressed to the Florida Division of Emergency Management, Bureau of Mitigation, 2555 Shumard Oak Blvd., Tallahassee, FL 32399-2100. These are due within 15 days of this notice. The State will forward comments to applicable regulatory agencies as needed. Interested persons may submit comments, obtain more detailed information about the proposed action, or request a copy of the findings by contacting:
Syndi Merriman
Syndi.Merriman@Charlottecountyfl.gov
941-764-4560
State Environmental Specialist Team
Florida Division of Emergency Management
MitigationEnvironmental@em.myflorida.com