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Water wars bring rejoicing, frustration

Legislators pledge to keep hounding Lindrick, but the state considers accepting a settlement from Aloha Utilities.

Wayne Forehand and Bill Downs are longtime veterans of battles with the privately owned utilities that provide water to their homes.

Both men marked key milestones in their personal water wars on Thursday. Only one was happy.

Downs, a Holiday resident, was assured by two state lawmakers that the state would exhaust all possibilities - including criminal investigation, if warranted - to make Lindrick Service Corp. answer to its customers.

But in Forehand's 10-year fight with Aloha Utilities, staffers at the state Public Service Commission advised their bosses to accept the terms of a settlement outlined by Aloha attorneys earlier this week.

"We're just doing this to shut everybody up, that's how I read it," Forehand said of the Aloha settlement. "I am really disappointed. This is not a good deal for the customers."

Thursday's water news started with tough talk from state legislators at a morning meeting with neighborhood association representatives in the Lindrick Service area.

State Sen. Mike Fasano and state Rep. John Legg pledged to ask the State Attorney's Office to look for possible criminal violations in a dispute between the Department of Environmental Protection and Lindrick, the water utility for about 2,500 homes west of U.S. 19 in Holiday.

Frustrated customers applauded the news.

"Finally, we're seeing some light at the end of the tunnel," said Downs, one of 16 customers at the meeting. "We're very happy about it."

Fasano, R-New Port Richey, and Legg, R-Port Richey, calling for a criminal investigation is "slander," Lindrick owner Joe Borda said.

"I'm not a criminal," Borda told the Pasco Times. "That's about as farfetched as the Yukon."

Borda and his utility are being investigated by the DEP for allegedly hooking up two wells near septic tanks without permission and performing unpermitted work that caused a major water outage on June 29. The department also accused Lindrick of failing to properly communicate with customers and state officials about a weeklong boil-water order after the outage.

Borda said the outage was an anomaly. He called the permit issues "an honest disagreement."

Lindrick customers say the issues are part of a long history of troubles with the privately owned utility. In addition to cheering a possible criminal investigation, they also applauded Pasco County Commissioner Anne Hildebrand's ongoing efforts to have the county purchase the utility. County officials have balked at Borda's $22-million asking price.

Water activists were aware of Aloha's proposed settlement. Few expected the Public Service Commission staff to give it serious consideration.

But on Thursday morning the staff surprised many by posting on the agency's Web site a recommendation that the commission accept Aloha's offer.

The commission, which has final say on the matter, will vote on the settlement Aug. 2.

Customers have complained for years about Aloha's sometimes blackish, foul-smelling tap water.

The battle has been a fixture on the Public Service Commission's docket since 1998. This year, more than 2,000 customers upped the stakes with a request to remove their homes from the Aloha service area.

The settlement requires the commission to dismiss all three open cases, ending customers' hopes of ditching Aloha. In return, Aloha will stop its legal actions against the commission and also provide cash and loans to up to 200 of its 15,000 customers to repipe their homes.

The utility admits no wrongdoing in the settlement and requires the commission to expedite a future rate increase to pay for additional water it will purchase from Pasco County.

In the final draft, the utility agreed to let the commission select the most cost-effective solution to remove the excess hydrogen sulfide in its water. An Aloha-funded study on the issue is due Aug. 15. Aloha is appealing a recent county order to use aeration technology to fix the problem.

"I think this settlement is in everyone's best interest," Aloha president Steve Watford said Thursday. He said the company felt it was time to end the long fight.

Commission staffers agreed.

Fasano, meanwhile, said he plans to tell the commission to ignore the staff recommendation.

Said Fasano: "I am just really disappointed in the PSC staff right now."