Middle ground in the water wars
A Times EditorialPublished December 16, 2005
We might have learned from the water wars after all. State regulators and Tampa Bay Water found room to reasonably compromise over the utility's operation of the seawater desalination plant in Hillsborough County.
The Southwest Florida Water Management District objected to Tampa Bay Water's plan to run the plant at less than its full capacity. The utility argued that heavy rains could make it possible to use cheaper groundwater sources instead. A deal both will consider next week calls for Tampa Bay Water to run the plant at varying capacity to balance concerns over cost and environmental impacts to groundwater pumping. Having targets should put the utility on notice the public expects the plant to work. It already is two years behind schedule. By agreeing to ease production demands, water managers stabilize funding for the project. More important, the flexibility in the deal helps ensure that science, not politics, will drive production decisions.
Tampa Bay Water cannot afford to lose more public confidence in the plant, and regulators should realize the three-county utility is better suited to make its own policy decisions. Fixing production to a magic number is senseless if heavy rains make it safe to increase pumping. This deal strikes a middle ground by providing incentives to perfect the plant while leaving room for common sense. It may be desal's biggest contribution so far to quieting the water wars.