The Town of Indian River Shores and the City of Vero Beach have found themselves on opposing sides over utilities in the past, but looming state environmental mandates plus needed road and stormwater improvements have forced the two governments to cooperate to bring sewer service to Beachcomber Lane and Pebble Lane homeowners still using septic tanks.

Both the Shores and Vero councils voted to approve an interlocal agreement for residents on those two non-gated streets to become Vero wastewater customers via the installation of Septic Tank Effluent Pump (STEP) systems that the city has used successfully over the past decade. All work must be completed before the agreement expires in October 2027.

Town Manager Jim Harpring said he’s been negotiating with Vero on the matter for nearly two years to minimize inconvenience to the owners of roughly two-dozen homes on Beachcomber Lane and Pebble Lane, east of Highway A1A. “The primary goal was to coordinate with the city, their activities related to septic to sewer conversions for those public streets where people were still on septic within the town and to do that concurrent with the Town doing our road repaving and stormwater infrastructure upgrades,” Harpring said. “We had two roads that we were scheduled for paving and stormwater upgrades. Both of those roads have all the homes that are on septic.”

Septic-to-sewer conversion typically costs $11,000 to $14,000, but every property is different, depending upon the tank location and condition. For those who cannot pay this as a lump sum, the town has passed Ordinance 581 amending town code to allow residents to finance this expense, thus replicating a program Vero Beach has used to move its own city residents off septic tanks onto sewer service.

The town will assess Shores residents hooking up to sewer with a STEP system over a 10-year period, with the Town holding the obligation or lien. Harpring said further actions to implement this will come before the council in November. Aging septic tanks must be phased out by July 1, 2030, or connected to a community sewer network, if hook-up is available. The STEP devices take away almost all the liquid waste or effluent, leaving solids to decompose in the septic tanks. This minimizes impact to the Indian River Lagoon from waste leaching into the water from overflowing or failed septic tanks.

Vero Beach Utilities Director Rob Bolton has said numerous times that expanding the number of sewer customers via STEP system hook-ups will help the city spread the cost of the under-construction wastewater treatment plant at the airport to keep water-sewer rate increases a bit lower than if the city’s customer base was not growing. Residents at the southern end of 32963 are also in the process of hooking up to the Vero sewer system via STEP conversion.