Despite threat, water board won't bow to speaker

Tampa Bay Water refuses to back off a project that Rep. Johnnie Byrd opposes.

By CRAIG PITTMAN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 22, 2003

CLEARWATER -- In what one official compared to a game of chicken, Tampa Bay Water refused Monday to back down from a controversial project that prompted House Speaker Johnnie Byrd to threaten the future of the agency.

The board voted 7-1 to oppose a legislative bill, backed by Byrd, that board members say could revive the water wars of the 1990s and increase utility bills for 2-million customers in Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.

"It is imperative that we stand up to this," said Pinellas County Commissioner Susan Latvala, one of the utility's nine board members. Representatives from all three counties agreed.

Should the bill become law, "the effect would be a significant increase in costs for people on fixed incomes and on retirement," warned St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker.

Byrd favors giving member governments -- the three counties and the cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg and New Port Richey -- a veto over water projects in their back yards. He says that would help prevent environmental damage from overpumping.

His argument didn't sway the utility board, but his considerable political clout gave at least one member pause.

"It's very difficult to play chicken with the speaker of the House and not blink," said Hillsborough County Commissioner Kathy Castor.

Castor initially urged her colleagues on the board to end any talk of pumping at Cone Ranch in eastern Hillsborough, the object of Byrd's ire. But no one else would agree, and in the end Castor also voted to oppose Byrd.

The only dissenting vote came from Pasco County Commissioner Ted Schrader. His Pasco colleague, Commissioner Ann Hildebrand, voted against Byrd. Ronda Storms, one of two Hillsborough commissioners on the board, did not attend.

Byrd, R-Plant City, has taken a keen interest in stopping the pumping at Cone Ranch, which is in his district.

Tampa Bay Water officials say pumping 8-million gallons a day from Cone Ranch is possible in the future, despite concerns about the potential impact on the Hillsborough River, Tampa's main water source.

Byrd warned the utility two years ago that there would be political consequences if the board did not drop the project. The consequences cropped up this month in a bill (HB 1069) sponsored by state Rep. David Russell, R-Brooksville.

Russell's bill requires local governments to consider the availability of water resources when permitting new development.

Two weeks ago, an amendment surfaced. Tampa Bay Water officials say it threatens to undermine the basis on which the agency was founded.

Before Tampa Bay Water was created in 1998, Pinellas and other local governments spent years battling each other in court over water resources. While the water wars raged, the thirsty urban areas sucked dry wetlands, lakes and rivers in rural areas, causing tremendous environmental damage.

The agreements creating Tampa Bay Water ended the legal battles. Each local government got a say on the Tampa Bay Water board, but none could single-handedly veto a project in its own back yard.

That has been crucial to Tampa Bay Water's success, say utility officials, because it forced everyone to work together. The utility's biggest project, the Apollo Beach desalination plant that recently opened, was built over Hillsborough's objections.

Thanks to water from the desal plant and other sources, pumping from Tampa Bay Water's 11 well fields has fallen from an average of 155-million gallons a day last year to just 79-million gallons a day last month.

The Byrd-backed amendment would toss out that no-veto provision -- allowing Hillsborough to veto the Cone Ranch project if it wished.

The Hillsborough County Commission voted 4-3 last week to support the bill. Joining Tampa Bay Water in opposing it are the Pinellas County Commission, the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council and the Southwest Florida Water Management District.

In other action Monday, the board voted unanimously to replace the 1975-era portions of a pipeline that broke last month and to investigate moving its headquarters out of leased space next year into a building the agency would own.

"Will you be checking with Speaker Byrd to see if we're still in business?" Pinellas Commissioner Bob Stewart, Tampa Bay Water's chairman, asked the staff. Latvala suggested checking the office location with him, too.

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