The suit claims abuse, but county and Tampa Bay Water attorneys say the move is a bid for money.
By CRAIG PITTMAN
Published April 17, 2004
The heirs of the family that since 1953 has let local government pump millions of gallons of water from beneath its North Pinellas land are suing Pinellas County and Tampa Bay Water over their use of the Eldridge-Wilde Wellfield.
The well field, which covers 1,800 acres east of Tarpon Springs, is owned by the Wilde family, who allowed Pinellas County to pump 25-million gallons of water a day from beneath it. In exchange, the 99-year agreement required Pinellas to pay the property taxes on the land, which total about $25,000 a year.
In 1998, Pinellas assigned the Eldridge-Wilde lease to Tampa Bay Water, the new regional wholesale utility created to end the water wars that tore the region apart in the 1990s. Tampa Bay Water paid $70-million for the lease and has operated the well field ever since.
Now, in a suit filed last month, the trust representing the Wilde heirs says Tampa Bay Water should pay them more. Its suit contends that Tampa Bay Water is not a proper government entity, as required by the lease, and accuses the utility of selling the water for a profit, which also would violate the lease.
The trust contends Tampa Bay Water has overpumped the land, drying up wetlands and causing saltwater intrusion underground. And it says the utility built pumps and pipelines that were not authorized, so those should be removed.
"It's basically a lawsuit for money," Tampa Bay Water general counsel Don Conn said Friday. "They want to renegotiate the terms of the lease."
Conn and Assistant County Attorney Joseph Morrissey said they will demonstrate that Tampa Bay Water was formed by the Legislature and is indeed a government agency.
The Wilde family first notified Tampa Bay Water of its concerns a year ago, Conn said, so the utility tried to negotiate an agreement that both sides liked. Those negotiations ended in February.
No trial date has been set for the suit, filed March 31. The trust recently hired a public relations firm that sent out a news release about the suit on Friday.
Tampa Bay Water's board, made up of mayors and county commissioners from the three-county region, is scheduled to discuss the suit Monday during its regular monthly meeting in its Clearwater offices.
