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NEW PORT RICHEY - Seven Springs resident Thomas Simpson stepped to the microphone and abandoned his prepared remarks, distilling his point instead to an emphatic refrain: "Sever me from Aloha Utilities. Sever me from Aloha Utilities. Sever me from Aloha Utilities."
Simpson seemed to speak for the more than 200 people who attended Thursday's Public Service Commission hearing on the quality of Aloha's water.
Although the PSC wanted to hear about ways to correct discolored and foul-smelling water, customers insisted the only true solution is freeing them from Aloha and allowing them to obtain water from Pasco County.
"We are asking exactly, directly, purposefully to release us from the burden of Aloha. We don't want to suffer any more," said Marilyn Lambert, like Simpson an Aloha customer.
Throughout the daylong hearing, speakers accused Aloha of ignoring its problems, of getting by on the minimum standards and putting personal profit ahead of customer health and satisfaction. They mocked Aloha's recent decision to hire a public relations firm.
Customers said Aloha did not cooperate with a citizen advisory group the PSC ordered the company to create. Commissioner Charles Davidson said he was "troubled" by that and expressed frustration with Aloha's inability to stem the complaints.
"Clearly these people are experiencing real problems," he said.
The PSC did not make any rulings Thursday but will continue with the regulatory process, which could mean dictating what changes Aloha must make or granting a petition signed by about 1,500 customers to leave Aloha's service area.
Aloha was not permitted to respond to customer complaints and assertions Thursday, a point the company objected to, but president Stephen Watford talked with reporters afterward.
Watford said Aloha representatives have attended and given presentations at citizen advisory committee meetings. He invited a committee member to discuss the situation along with a University of South Florida professor who had been hired to study Aloha's water. But Watford said that overture led him to be accused of trying to fracture the group.
"I believe we have cooperated to the extreme," Watford said.
But the PSC was told Aloha also resisted the USF professor's effort. "I liken her task to trying to describe a movie plot using only two still frames from the film," said John H. Gaul, a customer with a background in chemistry. "You are certainly able to say something basic but you never understand the real picture."
Professor Audrey Levine did not attend Thursday's meeting and could not be reached for comment. Watford noted the acknowledgement section of her report that thanked him and his staff for access to facilities and for accommodating information requests.
Her report found Aloha's water met quality standards when it left the plant. But she said the water could be improved to reduce discoloration and rotten-egg smells when the water came out of customers' taps.
Levine suggested three possible upgrades, one of which, hydrogen peroxide oxidation, has been endorsed by Aloha. But the company estimates the new treatment, which is untested in Florida, could cost $3.5-million to $4-million or more and result in a rate increase of 44 percent.
Gaul said customers want no part of an "experiment," adding: "There is no data to support their choices, no concern for solving our problems and no guarantee that they will reduce or eliminate the black water problem. All they are guaranteeing us is substantially higher rates."
A technical solution already is at hand, Gaul said. "Pasco County already produces a quality product with characteristics that the customers of the Seven Springs area want for a price we can afford," he said.
Abe Kurian, another Aloha customer with technical expertise, said reports showed as early as 1991 that the sole use of chlorine for processing water can lead to the so-called black water. Despite that knowledge, he said, the problem exists today.
Aloha attributes black water to copper pipes in customers' homes. Without question, the pipes are corroding, customers said, but only because of Aloha's water. One man said he has PVC pipes and still gets discolored water.
On Thursday, there were no jugs of black water - a prop customers used before to prove their point to regulators - but plenty of anecdotes about stained tubs, toilets and sinks and water that smells like rotten eggs. Several people told the PSC they reverted to bottled water for drinking and cooking.
"Aloha is a utility that is a disgrace to the customers it serves," Edward Wood said.
By way of comparison, the Pasco County utility system rarely gets complaints about blackish water, utilities director Bruce Kennedy said. Usually those complaints come from residents who have been gone for several months, allowing the water in the pipes to stagnate, he said.
"We don't get many of those calls," Kennedy said. "The main problem is hydrogen sulfides, and we remove a lot of that from the water as part of our treatment process."
- Times staff writer Bridget Hall Grumet contributed to this report.