All Largo residents would pay an "availability" fee in areas where new reclaimed water service is installed - even if they don't want the service.
By LORRI HELFAND
Published June 20, 2003
LARGO - People in Largo may be paying for reclaimed water whether they want to use it or not.
The city has a $35-million plan to expand reclaimed water service to about 7,000 more homes. More than 1,900 customers, residential and commercial, have it now.
To help pay for the 10-year plan, administrators are suggesting that all residents pay an availability fee in neighborhoods where new reclaimed water service is installed. The monthly fee is proposed to be $5 - half of the fee now charged users.
Both Clearwater and Pinellas County charge monthly availability fees.
This is one of several reclaimed water measures the city will consider at the July 1 meeting. Those measures include establishing designated watering days, providing a way to store reclaimed water and installing meters.
The reclaimed water issue is more about resources than cost, said City Manager Steve Stanton.
"We're as guilty as the next person assuming that it's an unlimited resource," he said.
Initially, the purpose of using reclaimed water was to get rid of wastewater. Now it has become a valuable commodity.
That's why Largo is considering a process called aquifer storage and recovery, which pumps and stores reclaimed water underground.
Norton Craig, environmental services director, said the city has about 18-million gallons of reclaimed water storage.
"That's all I have. During the dry months, all of that just about disappears," Craig said.
Largo has no rate plan for metered use of recycled water. Meters are being installed along with new reclaimed water services.
Along with the meters and new pipes could come designated watering days three times a week, which will be discussed at the next commission meeting.
Now, there is only one restriction on reclaimed water: It must not be used between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
If the city's proposal passes, property owners with even addresses would be permitted to water with reclaimed water on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays and odd addresses would be permitted to water on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
Robert Akerman Jr., 51, who lives in the Harbor Heights neighborhood, says restrictions are sensible.
"That's still better than one day a week. You can't use something that's not there, and there's got to be enough to go around," said Akerman, whose neighborhood expects to get reclaimed water next year.
