Desal delays boil into dispute
Afraid of losing Swiftmud's $85-million, Tampa Bay Water decides to try harder to reach agreement over its desal plant.
By CRAIG PITTMAN
Published August 16, 2005
CLEARWATER - Amid reports of yet another glitch with the troubled desalination plant, Tampa Bay Water's board voted Monday to seek mediation in its dispute with the Southwest Florida Water Management District over the plant's operation.
The Apollo Beach plant, the largest in the United States, was supposed to begin operating in 2003 but has been delayed until 2006. It was designed to take seawater from Tampa Bay, filter out the salt and turn it into 25-million gallons of drinking water a day, lessening the environmental impact of pumping groundwater.
But it has been plagued by myriad problems, including the discovery in the past month that more than half its water pumps are corroded.
Swiftmud, as the water management district is known, promised to pay $85-million in tax money for the $140-million plant and contends Tampa Bay Water agreed to operate it at full capacity.
But Tampa Bay Water says once the plant reopens in October 2006, it might generate just 15-million gallons of water a day.
Water from the plant will cost consumers a lot more than water pumped from beneath the ground or skimmed off the Hillsborough and Alafia rivers, utility officials say, and they want the flexibility to blend sources for the best cost while still protecting the environment.
The lone Tampa Bay Water member to vote against mediation was Hillsborough County Commissioner Mark Sharpe, who said he worries Tampa Bay Water is losing credibility.
"I'm still concerned that it was sold to the public as a facility with a baseline operation at 25-million gallons a day," Sharpe said.
By trying to convince everyone otherwise, Sharpe told his fellow board members, "the public begins to shake their heads and say you can't really believe anything we say."
The plant has been shut down since June so a contractor can repair problems that prevented it from producing more than 7.3-million gallons a day last year.
Tampa Bay Water hired American Water Pridesa last November for $29-million to fix the plant. The plant has been plagued by problems from the start, ranging from contractors going bankrupt to Asian green mussels clogging its water intakes.
A new set of worries cropped up last month with the discovery that many of the plant's 22 water pumps have developed problems with rust and corrosion. A few were rusted completely through.
Fourteen of the 22 have been shipped to the manufacturer in Louisiana, said project manager Eric Sabolsice Jr. of American Water Pridesa.
The desal plant was originally envisioned as a solution to the environmental problems caused by the region's dependence on groundwater. Decades of pumping drained wetlands and caused sinkholes to form under homes. Hardest hit were central Pasco, western Hillsborough and northern Pinellas.
As an incentive to embrace environmentally friendly alternatives, Swiftmud agreed to put up $85-million for the desal plant. Without that, the plant would not have been built.
In annual operations reports submitted to the water district, Tampa Bay Water has repeatedly said, "This plant will provide 25-million gallons per day."
Earlier this year, though, it asked to change the wording to say that would be its design capacity. Swiftmud officials balked.
"We would look like complete idiots if we put up 90 percent of the construction costs and didn't require that they run it" at full strength, Swiftmud board member Ed Chance said in June.
Tampa Bay Water officials say they meant only that was how much it could produce, not what it would produce.
"My impression has always been that 25 mgd has always been the capacity, not the required pumpage," said St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker, a Tampa Bay Water board member.
But the dispute has made the utility's lenders and plant contractor nervous because they fear Swiftmud will withhold the $85-million, Tampa Bay Water general counsel Don Conn said. So at his recommendation, the board voted to spend 30 days trying to work things out with Swiftmud. If that fails, then they would go to a professional mediator.
If mediation fails, Conn said, either party could take the matter to court.
Swiftmud spokesman Mike Molligan said the water regulation agency had anticipated this move and looks forward to discussions.