Columbia County commissioners on Tuesday authorized staff to negotiate with the City of Lake City over the possible sale of the North Florida Mega Industrial Park (NFMIP) wastewater treatment plant.

Steve Brown, the city's executive director, said the city's original plan called for Lake City to own and operate the plant and that the city would seek to purchase the facility 'for the county's investment' rather than asking the county to give it away. "We're not asking for you to give it to us. We wanna purchase it for what your investment is," Brown said.

The discussion focused on a pair of linked issues: how the community will dispose of effluent (Brown said the options are deep-well injection or hauling) and how to pay for the next, expensive permitting and construction steps. Brown told commissioners drilling and testing a deep injection well would take roughly two years: about a year to drill and roughly a year to test. He also said the city has identified grant opportunities and legislative-appropriation paths but that the full financing plan and cost estimates remain to be presented.

Commissioners repeatedly pressed for a written financial plan and time line. Several said they would not sign off on any sale or interlocal agreement without clear numbers on the county's outstanding debt and the cost to make the plant compliant with regulatory requirements. Commissioner questions also touched on earlier project accounting ("true-ups") and whether the city's proposal would make the county whole for prior expenditures.

A motion that staff be authorized to negotiate with the City of Lake City passed after a second and a voice vote. County staff and the city agreed to return with detailed cost estimates, an updated engineering scope from Jones Edmund, and a timeline for deep-well injection permitting and testing.

What happens next: staff will negotiate terms and then bring any proposed purchase agreement, interlocal service agreement or financing plan back to the commission for formal approval.