ISLAMORADA -- The Village Council will be asked to finally decide what its wastewater system will look like over a series of two meetings this week. But the latest analysis of the cost of various sewer options does little to point the council in any obvious direction.

"The selected option should be a decision made based on the preference for managing wastewater within the village assuming that a fair an equitable agreement can be reached with Key Largo," the report, prepared by the village's wastewater program manager Hazen And Sawyer, states.

Echoing a less-thorough analysis the firm conducted over the summer, engineers found that whether the village pumps its sewage to a plant in Key Largo; treats its waste locally at two plants; or treats its sewage locally at three plants, the costs will be nearly the same.

The analysis, an overview of which the village released in advance of this week's meeting, included a look at construction costs as well as 25 years of projected operating expenses. Data upon which the analysis was based was not available before press time.

According to the overview, engineers found that the two-treatment plant option, including a plant at mile marker 80.6 in Upper Matecumbe Key and an expansion of the existing north Plantation Key plant, would cost $191 million to build and operate over 25 years.

A three-plant option, with a third plant to be located at the Key Lime property on southern Plantation Key, would cost $185 million. Neither of the in-village options included a plant at the Islamorada Tennis Club, a controversial site upon which the village holds an option contract.

Pumping all of Islamorada's sewage to Key Largo -- and in the process decommissioning the north Plantation Key plant -- would cost $187 million over 25 years, according to the analysis. Finally, it would cost $188 million to connect most of the village to the Key Largo plant while north Plantation Key sewage continued to be treated locally.

With the numbers so similar, the analysis suggests that non-cost-related considerations, such as Key Largo's lack of a water-reuse system and the public's aversion to new plants in the village, should be the deciding factors.

In recent weeks the council has leaned strongly toward the Key Largo option. Even Mayor Don Achenberg, long an opponent of working with Islamorada's neighbor to the north, has begun touting its advantages. Earlier this month the Key Largo Wastewater Treatment District board unanimously endorsed the idea.

But there remain a number of village residents who, concerned about costs, are pushing for no central sewer system at all.

At a meeting on Nov. 5, Vice Mayor Michael Reckwerdt expressed his continued support for just such a course of action.

Meanwhile, Councilwoman Jill Zima Borksi, long the council's most ardent supporter of centralized sewers, now says she'll back away from a central system if it comes down to that or pumping village waste to Key Largo.

"Without substantial savings, for me it's not an option," Borski said.

rsilk@keysnews.com