Hernando County breaks ground on Ridge Manor water facility expansion

Ridge Manor residents will eventually see the payoff from a much larger wastewater system on Kettering Road: more treatment capacity, better reliability and a plant built to keep up with Hernando County’s growth. The county marked that step with a June 4 groundbreaking at 5095 Kettering Rd. in Brooksville, where leaders and utilities staff gathered at the site of the existing Ridge Manor Water Reclamation Facility.

The expansion is aimed at the problems that usually show up long before a ribbon-cutting matters to most neighbors. County materials say the upgraded facility will use advanced reclamation systems, support the area’s growing population for decades, improve resilience during hurricanes and severe weather, and replace outdated infrastructure that must meet current regulatory and environmental standards. In practical terms, the project is meant to keep wastewater service dependable as Ridge Manor and surrounding parts of Hernando County continue to add homes and commercial activity.

The scale of the work is significant. Bid documents describe the current plant as a 0.75 million-gallon-per-day facility that has to stay operational throughout construction. The new facility is planned at 2.0 MGD, with a bid alternate for another 1.0 MGD, which would bring total capacity to 3.0 MGD. The project also includes new rapid infiltration basins, yard piping, sitework, electrical and instrumentation work, and generators, along with an emergency operations structure of about 2,500 square feet.

That emergency building is designed for more than just storage. The county says it will include office space, a conference room, a breakroom, restrooms and SCADA and mechanical rooms, and it will also serve Department staff during declared state emergencies. That detail matters in a county that has seen its utility system tested by growth pressure and storm season alike. Hernando County is currently under a Modified Phase III water shortage, underscoring how closely water and wastewater planning are tied to the county’s future.

The Ridge Manor project fits a pattern Hernando County has followed elsewhere. The Airport Water Reclamation Facility was previously expanded from 3.5 MGD to 6 MGD, after opening in October 1999, showing the county has been steadily adding capacity as demand rises. A 2025 County Administrator presentation also framed water and sewer expansion on the county’s north and east sides as part of a broader infrastructure strategy. The Ridge Manor expansion now carries that strategy forward in a place where the next constraint on growth may come not from roads or rooftops, but from the pipes and plants that keep the community running.