By Times Staff Writer
Published September 26, 2003
Tampa Bay Water canceled a special meeting scheduled for today because the company building its desalination plant failed to find a new partner to help finish the $110-million facility.
Covanta is facing default Wednesday if it fails to get the plant running. That would trigger penalties while giving the company 48 more days to fix any remaining problems.
Tampa Bay Water officials say completing the plant by the deadline is "mathematically impossible."
Covanta was negotiating with former competitors to join the project and with Tampa Bay Water for more time.
The negotiations went until 2 a.m. Thursday but yielded no new agreement, Tampa Bay Water officials said, so they canceled today's meeting.
Covanta spokeswoman Beth Leytham said the company reached an agreement Thursday for U.S. Filter to join the project. She offered no details.
Leytham blamed the plant's problems on tiny hairs from Asian green mussels, which stick to hard surfaces throughout Tampa Bay.
The hairs have clogged the desalination plant's filters so much that extra cleaning was needed.
Covanta was supposed to finish the plant by the end of January, but missed that deadline and others.
Its parent company went bankrupt last year, just as the initial builder of the plant, Stone & Webster, went under.
The plant is supposed to produce 25-million gallons of fresh water a day for the utility's 2-million customers in Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.
