As Volusia County grows, so too must its capacity for dealing with waste.

Officials say a three-component effort to upgrade and expand the wastewater treatment plant in DeBary will do that and then some.

Design work on the Southwest Regional Water Reclamation Facility project begins soon with the Volusia County Council's recent decision to award the $2.4 million design contract to DeLand-based CPH Consulting.

"The whole project is absolutely required," Council Chair Jeff Brower said during Tuesday's meeting. "We’re a growing population."

It's estimated about $40 million from multiple funding sources will have been poured into the project by the time it's completed, which officials hope will be in 2026.

Officials say the design and permitting work should take about 19 months to complete. Construction could begin in 2024 if everything goes according to schedule.

The project's plans call for nearly doubling the plant's current treatment capacity from 2.7 million gallons per day to 5 million, improving the biosolids treatment process and adding a ground storage tank that will at least double the available reclaimed water for irrigation use.

"As you recall during our water quality workshop earlier this year, we talked about some of the things we were looking at doing in the spring shed to improve water quality, and this is a step in that direction," Ben Bartlett, the county's public works director, told the council.

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Volusia County officials earlier this year decided to allocate about $18.4 million from the American Rescue Plan Act funding it received to the wastewater treatment plant project.

Mike Ulrich, the county's water resources and utilities director, said that show of commitment helped the county get additional funding this summer for the project from the St. Johns River Water Management District to the tune of more than $2.3 million. The Department of Environmental Protection has contributed nearly $15 million.

When the improvements to the treatment of biosolids are complete, Volusia County will produce Class A fertilizer, Ulrich said.

Biosolids are created during the wastewater treatment process. The liquids are separated from the solids that "are then treated physically and chemically to produce a semisolid, nutrient-rich product known as biosolids," the Environmental Protection Agency's website states.

About 5,000 tons of biosolids, also known as sewage sludge, are trucked out of Volusia County annually, Ulrich said. 

Once the system is upgraded, the facility will be able to reduce the volume of the biosolids by about 90%, resulting in an estimated annual cost savings of up to $450,000 per year, Ulrich said. The Class A fertilizer it produces will be usable by local municipalities and nurseries.

The growing population isn't the only reason behind the desire to expand the Southwest Regional Water Reclamation Facility.

As Bartlett said, the upgrades will result in improved water quality in the spring shed, a state-required effort resulting from the Florida Springs and Aquifer Protection Act in 2016.

The Legislature identified in the act 30 "Outstanding Florida Springs;" 24 of them were deemed impaired due to pollution levels, and three of those are in Volusia County — Blue, Gemini and DeLeon.