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Repair of sewer lines will require hike in rates

Tampa has not seen an increase in seven years. A hearing on the increase is scheduled for Sept. 8.

By JANET ZINK
Published July 28, 2005

TAMPA - Angela Soiferman thought it was a joke when she got the call at work.

"A sinkhole has opened in front of your house," a man doing rehab work at her house told her.

But sure enough, a 15-foot hole opened July 18 over a collapsed sewer pipe by her home near Sligh Avenue, snarling traffic and smelling up the neighborhood.

Repairs to the 50-year-old pipe - which sent about 26,000 gallons of raw sewage into the Hillsborough River - will cost the city at least $250,000.

The pipe break at Sligh Avenue is just the latest indication that Tampa's dilapidated sewage system needs fixing. And the bill is now due.

Sewage line problems have been so frequent and severe that state and county environmental regulators have fined the city $182,300 and ordered it to ensure that similar disasters don't keep happening. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Hillsborough County Environmental Protection Commission have negotiated a consent order to be considered by the City Council today that outlines what improvements are needed and a timetable for finishing them.

To pay for the fixes, the city needs to increase utility rates, and keep increasing them in the years to come.

A public hearing on increasing utility rates for all customers is scheduled for Sept. 8. Utility rates haven't been increased for seven years.

That follows action last week when the City Council approved an increase of fees charged for water and wastewater services, such as connections for new construction, which haven't been increased since 1985. The city also is instituting a late payment charge for utility bills.

"It's not an easy thing to find the money for, but even if there had been just small increases over the last decade we'd be further ahead," Mayor Pam Iorio said. "This problem has been completely neglected over the years."

The proposed 3 percent increase for water and 5 percent increase for sewer services in 2006 - an average of $2 a month for most customers - is modest, Iorio said. It's substantially less than a nearly $10 average monthly increase recommended by a consultant hired by the city.

"We've got to do what's affordable for people," she said. "We're going to have to take an incremental approach to this. We just can't have a city where there are pipes bursting and we don't have money to fix them."

The city's long-term plan calls for additional increases, with the cost to a family of four averaging $57.77 a month for a combined water and wastewater bill by 2010, an increase of $11.51 above the current average.

Environmental regulators say the city has to find the money.

"The city has been looking at these issues for a period of time. We felt that as a regulatory agency we needed to move that along," said Fred Nassar, manager for compliance and enforcement at the EPC. "The consent order puts pressure on the city to complete what it's agreed to."

The consent order's fine is partially because the city didn't notify environmental agencies of sewage spills.

Pamala Vazquez, a DEP spokeswoman, said the order gives them assurances the city will follow through on its promises.

The EPC launched the investigation 21/2 years ago, and the DEP joined in earlier this year.

The consent order documents wastewater spills throughout Tampa dating back to November 2002. In August 2003, a break in a corroded main on Davis Islands dumped 2-million gallons of water from toilets and sinks into a channel that leads to Hillsborough Bay. In November 2002, a grease clog caused a 415,000-gallon spill on Adamo Drive, some of which flowed into Palm River.

And in November 2004, a wastewater pipe burst in Sulphur Springs, sending more than 21-million gallons of untreated sewage into the neighborhood and toward the Hillsborough River.

"There was poop in the street, poop in people's yards," Sarah Hoy, who lives a half mile from where the pipe burst, has said of the incident. The order also lists spills that occurred during last year's busy hurricane season, but the city isn't being fined for those because they were caused by conditions beyond its control, Nassar said.

According to the consent order, the city must evaluate its entire sewer system, identify upgrades and complete them by 2012. Projects range from eliminating wastewater overflows on Coachman and Alline avenues in South Tampa to replacing aged force mains, installing back-up generators to keep pump stations running during power outages and implementing a grease disposal ordinance.

"All of this is going to require money," said Ralph Metcalf, director of the city's wastewater department. "There's no freebie."

The department normally budgets $6-million a year for capital projects. But in the upcoming budget cycle, Metcalf said he'll need at least $12-million, and eventually more than $20-million each year. That money will help cover repairs outlined in the consent order as well as other necessary projects.

Nassar noted that the city has been upgrading its wastewater system, and some tasks included in earlier drafts of the consent order are finished.

Soiferman said she's willing to pay higher utility rates to fix the problems in Tampa.

A lift station in her neighborhood frequently backs up, she said. And during the hurricanes, manholes spewed raw sewage on her street.

"There's kids out there jumping in these big puddles because it looks like fun. They could have gotten sick," she said. "If it's a modest increase, it would be worth it to have that increase and take care of these issues."

TAMPA - Traffic was diverted on a portion of southbound Bayshore Boulevard on Wednesday after a stormwater drain broke and part of the road caved in.

The section of road caved in Wednesday morning between Euclid Avenue and Bay Villa Avenue after several joints connecting a large stormwater drain line failed, city officials said.

Motorists were diverted to maintain two-way traffic by using the northbound lanes of Bayshore Boulevard.

City crews were on the scene to repair both the street and the stormwater line, city officials said. Work was expected to last until Friday evening.

Janet Zink can be reached at 813 226-3401 or jzink@sptimes.com

[Last modified July 28, 2005, 01:09:17]