ISLAMORADA -- A lame duck Village Council on Thursday, March 10 is scheduled to hear a new report on the health of the north Plantation Key sewer system.

"It basically tries to clear up some of the misconceptions out there and answer some questions," Village Manager Ken Fields said. "We have operational issues. Everybody's system has operational issues. But in the last two years there have been no back-ups that have been the fault of the system."

Fields' presentation will come one month after the system, as well as he and Utilities Director Myles Milander, drew scathing criticism from Vice Mayor Michael Reckwerdt at the Feb. 11 Village Council meeting.

That night, Fields and Milander talked about problems that have cropped up within Phase II of the $24 million north Plantation Key system, which spans from approximately Coral Shores High School to Tavernier Creek on the ocean side and encompasses properties north of Plantation Key Colony on the bay side. Those areas went on-line gradually from May through October.

Among the problems are an undersized pipeline near Coral Shores, which led the village to rescind the connection order for the 62-unit Sea Gulls condominium, and a series of crushed vacuum cans in the Kahiki Harbor neighborhood near Tavernaero airfield, which led the village to rescind the mandatory connection order for 22 homes. The remote pump station on the corner of U.S. 1 and Sunshine Boulevard has also been a source of difficulty.

"When are we going to stop being the idiots who can't complete a wastewater system?" Reckwerdt asked at the Feb. 11 meeting. The council went on to ask Fields and Milander for the more detailed report they are scheduled to present Thursday.

Fields said the crux of what he is going to explain is that the system works, both in the original Plantation Key Colony area and now in the newer areas. Less than 100 customers are not able to receive service right now out of the approximately 1,400 the sewers are designed to cover. And to the extent that there are issues, they've been identified ahead of time, so that homeowners haven't suffered back-ups.

The manager said that aside from Sea Gulls and Kahiki Harbor, there are two vacuum pit problems in Phase II, each of which is impacting just a few homes. In addition, well documented problems with the Phase I sewer line along South Coconut Palm Boulevard in Plantation Key Colony have the village planning an estimated $1.35 million fix.

"A lot of this is stuff that should have been caught during the construction process four or five years ago, but we caught them before people hooked to the system," Fields said.

Results of Tuesday's Village Council elections won't be certified until Friday, meaning that Thursday's meeting will include at least one, and as many as four, lame-duck council members. The council, however, won't be asked to vote on any major items. They'll be dealing with only three legislative matters; the proposed purchase of a $62,000 generator, the proposed purchase of a $28,000 pump out for Plantation Yacht Harbor Marina, and the approval of a three-company library of contractors that the village could use for sewer line work.

rsilk@keysnews.com