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Will ripples over desal plant end up roiling waters?

By C.T. BOWEN
Published July 28, 2005

Jerry Maxwell is doing his best imitation of Chip Diller.

Maxwell is the director of Tampa Bay Water, the regional water supplier to three counties and three cities including Pasco and New Port Richey. Diller is the Omega pledge portrayed in Animal House by Kevin Bacon. Their message is the same.

Remain calm! All is well!

A rioting parade crowd flattened Bacon's Diller. Maxwell wants to ensure the harmony among Tampa Bay Water's often conflicted members and the Southwest Florida Water Management District doesn't meet the same fate and bring a "throwback to a huge era of mistrust."

At issue is exactly how much water will be produced by the saltwater desalination plant when all the fixes are supposed to be completed late next year. The plant in Apollo Beach in southern Hillsborough County is designed to produce 25-million gallons a day. Maxwell, in an interview with the Times editorial board Tuesday, said the plant could produce up to 28-million gallons daily if the need arises. Budget projections, however, call for it to generate about 15-million at the outset.

Why not rely on the desalination plant at full capacity?

"At the bottom line," said Maxwell, "it is rate gouging."

Water from the desalination plant costs almost 2,000 percent more than water taken from the ground. The utility blends sources of water to balance its rates.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District, which pledged $85-million to underwrite much of the plant's costs, isn't too tickled with paying for a plant that won't be running at full capacity.

The district hasn't cut the check yet, nor has Tampa Bay Water taken ownership of the plant. That won't happen until all the bugs are worked out, supposedly in October 2006.

But the district believes there is an obligation to run the plant at capacity. Tampa Bay Water believes the district shouldn't be trying to run the utility.

The dispute sparked renewed public fears that additional groundwater pumping will be needed to make up the difference. For people with short memories, groundwater pumping by Tampa Bay Water's predecessor - West Coast Regional Water Supply Authority - damaged wetlands and lakes in Pasco and northern Hillsborough counties, brought expensive litigation and legislative intervention to create the 1998 agreement ending the so-called water wars.

Under the settlement, Tampa Bay Water is contractually obligated to reduce groundwater pumping from its permitted level of 151-million gallons a day in 1998 to 90-million by 2008. New water sources and favorable rainfall allowed the utility to exceed the goal early. At the end of June, its 12-month running average was 86.5-million gallons pumped daily even though it is allowed to take 121-million.

Under normal circumstances, that data would make this dispute irrelevant. Trouble is, one of Tampa Bay Water's budget models shows rates based on the utility's gleaning 105-million gallons of water from underground pumping. That provoked public concerns about long-range plans to increase groundwater pumping.

A more immediate concern to Tampa Bay Water is its plans to complete a refinancing package next month that will save the utility about $10-million. Bond writers tend to get nervous when they read about the holders of an $85-million investment balking at how the collateral is being used.

Remain calm! All is well!

Pasco County Commissioner Ted Schrader doubles as chairman of the Tampa Bay Water governing board. He, too, wants to calm the waters, so to speak.

Schrader is in a politically ticklish position. The people who are his Pasco constituents suffered with the shallow lakes and damaged wetlands. Still, he sits on a utility board that must supply water to a booming region, the cornerstone of which is residential growth in Pasco.

"The fear among the public is the water wars will erupt all over again, and it's totally not the case," Schrader told fellow Pasco commissioners Tuesday afternoon.

Besides, the 1998 agreements among Pasco, Hillsborough, Pinellas, St. Petersburg, Tampa, New Port Richey and Southwest Florida Water Management District creating Tampa Bay Water allows for parochial disputes to be settled in arbitration. It's been used four times successfully.

If the water management district believes Tampa Bay Water is violating its contract, it can seek arbitration. Maxwell and the water board may beat them to it. In order to settle the dispute before the desalination plant is on line, Tampa Bay Water may seek to arbitrate.

Remain calm! All is well!

At least until an arbitrator says otherwise.

C.T. Bowen can be reached at 727 869-6239 or bowen@sptimes.com

[Last modified July 28, 2005, 01:10:15]