As bay area uses water from sea, nation watches

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© St. Petersburg Times
published September 27, 2002

Tampa Bay: a technology trendsetter? Hard to believe, but bellwether states such as California and Texas are casting a critical eye at our metro area for some cutting-edge guidance about their own futures.

The issue? Water desalination. Turning millions of gallons of saltwater into tap water using the latest technology of reverse osmosis.

A desal plant capable of generating 25-million gallons a day of tap water is in the later stages of construction near Apollo Beach on the shore of Tampa Bay. Currently the nation's largest desal project, the facility will start delivering drinking water early next year. But it already has become a role model for newly proposed desal plants designed to "drought-proof" water-scarce parts of southern California, south Texas and even south of Tampa Bay in Fort Myers.

Sure, the threat of an immediate water shortage in the Tampa Bay area has declined this year thanks to heavier than average rainfall. But water experts were truly scared by the recent four-year drought. They say the area will need more and more water to accommodate more people. And an extra 25-million gallons of drinking water -- enough to meet about 10 percent of local demand -- that is available, drought or not, is a commodity that's looking pretty inviting to resource-thirsty planners across the country.

Last week, California health officials gave preliminary approval for a desalination plant in Huntington Beach that could produce drinking water for nearly 500,000 Orange County residents. The plant would turn seawater into 50-million gallons of drinkable water daily -- twice the amount expected from the Tampa Bay desal plant -- making the California facility the nation's largest "desal" plant.

Poseidon Resources, a private company in Stamford, Conn., is helping to build the Tampa Bay plant for Tampa Bay Water, the facility's owner and the metro area's wholesale water provider. Poseidon is also behind several proposals for mammoth plants in California.

California is especially sensitive to drought because of its reliance on the Colorado River for its drinking water. Population pressures across the Western states are reducing the reliability of the river to meet California's growing needs.

Besides the proposed plant in Huntington Beach, desal facilities in Dana Point, Playa del Rey, Long Beach, Redondo Beach, El Segundo, Carlsbad and Chula Vista are being considered, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Texas may not be far behind.

Last month, Texas state officials toured the Tampa Bay plant after that state's governor asked for a closer study of seawater desalination. Likely plant sites: southern coastal Texas, near Corpus Christi and Brownsville.

At the Tampa Bay desal plant, as well as those proposed in California and Texas, facilities are located adjacent to electric power plants. That "co-location" allows the desal plants to take cost-saving advantage of needed saltwater intake pipes and other infrastructure already in use by the power plants. The Tampa Bay desal site is next to Tampa Electric Co.'s Big Bend plant.

South of the Tampa Bay area, Fort Myers and Lee County officials have grabbed hold of a similar idea for a 30-million desal plant to be located next to the existing Florida Power & Light power plant on the Caloosahatchee River.

Small wonder. The pace of development and increasing population in southwest Florida is dizzying. Early last year, when Florida's water shortage was front-page news, area water managers and FPL hired Water Resource Associates Inc. of Tampa to study 23 power plants in a 16-county area for a site to co-locate a reverse-osmosis plant. Fort Myers was chosen.

Tampa Bay officials already are pursuing a second, 25-million-gallon desalination plant. The second plant is planned for a site where the Anclote River flows into the Gulf of Mexico, adjacent to a Florida Power Corp. plant.

Like the Tampa Bay desal plant, the second plant would be owned by Tampa Bay Water.

Drinking water via desalination was rejected for years as too expensive. Now it's winning converts across the country as the price of the desal process drops and as the costs of harder-to-find traditional sources of water continue to rise.

Desal is not a win-win for sprawling coastal metro areas. Environmental issues remain a big concern because of the need to dispose of the salty waste left after the cleansing process. (One local antidesal protest sign: If I Wanted the Dead Sea, I'd Live in Israel), though water experts insist they are manageable.

Let's hope Tampa Bay's role-model status as a desal leader is one we can remain proud of once these plants come online.

-- Robert Trigaux can be reached at trigaux@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8405.

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