City officials say they can build a system that supplies higher quality water than the county at a lower cost in the long run, and sell the surplus.
By CANDACE RONDEAUX
Published February 12, 2004
TARPON SPRINGS - City officials want to take a bigger swig of local water resources and build their own $36-million water supply system.
City Manager Ellen Posivach unveiled a proposal to construct an alternative water supply system in Tarpon Springs during Tuesday night's City Commission meeting.
The results, officials say, would be higher quality water at a lower cost and surplus water that could be sold for a profit. The ambitious proposal would require referendum approval from city voters and regulatory approvals from regional and state agencies.
The project calls for gradual reduction of the city's use of water from Tampa Bay Water by bringing on line about a half-dozen existing water wells on Disston, Tarpon and Highland avenues.
Additional plans to construct a reverse-osmosis water treatment plant and nearly 50 more wells by 2009 would eventually end the city's dependency on outside water providers altogether, Posivach said. Preliminary plans envision building the reverse-osmosis plant somewhere north of the Anclote River.
Once completed, the system is expected to produce more than 6-million gallons of water a day by 2009 and hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for the city.
"Ultimately, it will be a more economical, long-term, dependable source of good, quality drinking water," said Ray Page, the city's wastewater treatment plant superintendent.
Tarpon Springs now buys almost all of its water from Pinellas County, which, in turn, gets much of its water from Tampa Bay Water, a regional water supply agency. Tarpon Springs uses an average of about 3.3-million gallons a day, with peaks as high as 4.5-million gallons a day, according to the city.
With the city's population expected to grow in the coming years, demand for water is likely to increase, and so are water prices, Posivach said. The county's wholesale rate for 2004 is an estimated $2.30 per 1,000 gallons. By 2006, that figure could go up to $2.78 per 1,000 gallons. That translates into an estimated city retail rate of $4.57 per thousand gallons by 2006, according to a study conducted by the city.
Although the proposed water supply system would cost millions, city officials say it would not create any further rate increases and is likely to save citizens money in the end. The city's existing water rates are expected to increase 8.85 percent each year through 2007, then decline. Under the new proposal, the decline after 2007 would not be as great.
One of the reasons for the proposal is that the city has become concerned about the quality of water purchased from the county. Tests on county water have shown the presence of low levels of bacteria on several occasions, according to a study released by the city.
Those test results were within established regulatory levels, but city officials hope the new independent system would improve water quality and that surplus water generated by the system would increase city revenues.
"It's giving us control, which we don't now have, over water quality," Posivach said. "And it's putting us in a position in five short years of being able to have a utility that turns a profit."
That's because Tarpon Springs' proposed water project would supply an additional 1.5-million gallons a day in surplus water, according to the study. Rough estimates suggest sales of surplus water to Tampa Bay Water could generate up to $500,000 annually, Posivach said.
Tampa Bay Water may lose Tarpon Springs as a customer but it would gain a new supplier. The plan's cost-effectiveness is one reason Tampa Bay Water is likely to approve the plan, said Tampa Bay Water finance director Koni Cassini.
Tampa Bay Water expects the region's demand for water will increase by 8-million gallons a day by 2013, so it is searching for new sources and suppliers of water.
"Our board members are very interested in any alternative that we might be able to do in terms of increasing water supplies," Cassini said.
But before the city can bring the project on tap, Tarpon Springs residents would be asked to vote on it. Posivach said she hopes to schedule a referendum this November asking residents to allow the city to borrow about $36-million on the bond market. The referendum also would ask voters to authorize the city to make land purchases and enter into a wholesale water contract with Tampa Bay Water or another buyer.
City officials are especially concerned that Tampa Bay Water's increasing financial stresses could drive up the cost of water.
Pointing to the water provider's recent troubles with its Apollo Beach desalination plant, they say legal expenses and rising operational costs could eventually translate into rate increases for city residents. The $110-million plant has faced three bankruptcies and several missed deadlines. Those and other problems recently prompted the agency to pay Covanta, the contractor hired to fix the plant, a $5-million settlement to end its contract so another company could be hired.
Plus, with the Apollo Beach plant stalled and construction on a proposed Anclote plant not scheduled to begin until 2006, additional alternative water supplies from Tampa Bay Water aren't expected any time soon, Posivach said.
"At one time, there was a sentiment that there was no need to become self-sufficient because the desalination plant was supposed to take care of it," Posivach said. "That sentiment seems to have changed."
Tampa Bay Water, Swiftmud and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection would have to approve the plan before the city could move forward.
Swiftmud officials said Wednesday that the agency will decide in April whether to pay for half of a $400,000 feasibility study requested by the city.
An enthusiastic Mayor Frank DiDonato said the water supply proposal would give city residents greater control over their water supply and how much they pay for it.
"It offers really a long-term security to the citizens of Tarpon Springs," DiDonato said.
