Florida's Tampa Bay region is confronting its growth head-on. On April 24, 2026, Hillsborough County broke ground on the One Water South Wastewater Conveyance and Treatment Project — a $1.2 billion infrastructure program that officials describe as the largest capital improvement project in the county's history. The official Hillsborough County announcement confirmed the groundbreaking. Construction Dive reported the milestone on April 29, 2026.

What Is Being Built

The One Water South project is a three-component system being delivered by Kansas City, Missouri-based contractor Garney Companies under a progressive design-build contract. Its three components:

• One Water Campus Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility (AWWTF): A new plant in Lithia with an initial capacity of 24 million gallons per day (MGD), designed to expand to 30 MGD in the future with minimal disruption. The facility is engineered to meet the region's wastewater needs through at least 2050, per county officials.
• Balm Road Super Lift Station: A new pump station capable of moving up to 54 to 56 million gallons of wastewater per day to the treatment facility, paired with a 5-million-gallon emergency storage tank.
• Wastewater and Reclaimed Water Pipelines: Roughly 10 miles of wastewater pipelines and 13 miles of reclaimed water lines, using 42-inch to 48-inch ductile iron pipe, connecting the new facility to the county's reuse network.

Pipeline work began in fall 2025; the April 2026 groundbreaking marked the start of vertical construction on the treatment plant and lift stations. Garney expects the facility to begin treating initial flows by September 2028, with full project completion in 2030, per the Construction Dive report.

The Bigger Picture: Hillsborough's $1.6 Billion One Water Program

The One Water South project sits within a larger $1.6 billion One Water Program — a county-wide initiative integrating drinking water, wastewater, and reclaimed water infrastructure across Hillsborough County's South-Central Service Area. According to the county's program page, the service area covers communities including Apollo Beach, Brandon, Gibsonton, Riverview, Ruskin, Wimauma, Sun City Center, and Valrico — all high-growth corridors that have seen sustained residential and commercial expansion.

Garney is also the contractor on a separate, independent $505.7 million South Hillsborough Pipeline for Tampa Bay Water — the largest project in that agency's history — a 26-mile potable water pipeline that broke ground in December 2025 and is targeted for completion by end of 2028. Together, the two projects represent over $1.7 billion in concurrent water infrastructure investment in the same county with the same contractor, per Construction Dive.

Why This Matters to Construction Professionals

The Hillsborough County One Water South project illustrates two powerful national trends converging. First, population-driven water infrastructure investment is accelerating in high-growth Sun Belt counties — communities that built rapidly in the 2010s and 2020s are now hitting the capacity ceilings of infrastructure designed for smaller populations. Second, the progressive design-build delivery model is becoming the preferred tool for complex, multi-component water programs where design risk is high and owner-contractor collaboration reduces cost and schedule uncertainty.

George Cassady, Hillsborough County's assistant county administrator for public utilities, described the plant at the groundbreaking: a 30 million gallon per day advanced wastewater treatment plant using some of the most advanced technology available, designed to provide adequate treatment capacity for the region's growing community, per FOX 13 Tampa's coverage.

The project also integrates water reuse by design — reclaimed water from the new treatment plant feeds directly back into the county's reuse distribution network, reducing treated effluent discharge and extending the freshwater supply for irrigation and industrial use. This aligns with the EPA's Water Reuse Action Plan 2.0, launched in April 2026, which calls for expanded deployment of exactly this type of community-scale reuse infrastructure.

Implications for Owners, Developers, and Subcontractors

For developers and landowners in South Hillsborough County, the One Water South project directly increases long-term development capacity. Wastewater and potable water infrastructure constraints are among the most binding limits on new residential and commercial development in the region; this $1.2 billion investment is, in effect, enabling the next decade of growth in the service area.

For subcontractors, Garney self-performs significant portions of water infrastructure work but relies heavily on specialty trades for electrical, instrumentation, mechanical, and large-diameter pipeline work. The multi-year buildout — with pipeline work underway since fall 2025 and plant construction running through 2030 — creates a sustained pipeline of work. Ductile iron pipe suppliers, advanced wastewater treatment equipment vendors, and large-pump specialists are among the most active procurement categories.

What to Watch Next

• September 2028: First flows treated at the new AWWTF — the project's first operational milestone
• 2030: Full project completion, including all pipeline and lift station work
• The South County Drinking Water Facility, the final One Water Program phase, will enter procurement next — completing the integrated water loop for the service area
• Other high-growth Florida counties — including Manatee, Sarasota, and Pasco — are watching Hillsborough's progressive design-build model as a potential template for their own capacity expansions

Bottom Line

Hillsborough County's One Water South project is not just the largest capital project in the county's history — it is a signal of how fast-growing Sun Belt communities are beginning to reckon with the infrastructure deficits created by years of rapid development. The $1.2 billion investment, delivered through a progressive design-build structure by a specialized national contractor, sets a standard for how local governments can address complex, multi-decade water and wastewater challenges in a single, well-structured program.

Sources:
Hillsborough County — Official Groundbreaking Announcement
Construction Dive — Garney breaks ground on $1.2B Florida wastewater treatment facility
Hillsborough County — One Water Program Overview
Construction Dive — Garney breaks ground on $505.7M Florida water pipeline project
EPA — Water Reuse Action Plan 2.0