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Obituary

Roy Harrell Jr., key to ending water wars, dies

By CRAIG BASSE and JEAN HELLER
Published January 26, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - Roy G. Harrell Jr., who led the Southwest Florida Water Management District when it ended the region's long-running water wars, died Wednesday (Jan. 25, 2006) while skiing in Aspen, Colo. He was 61.

Mr. Harrell, a partner in the law firm of Holland & Knight, died of "a massive heart attack," his former wife, Debbie Harrell, said. A spokeswoman for Farnum-Holt Funeral Home in Glenwood Springs, Colo., said his body was being transported to a coroner's office for an autopsy. With him on the vacation were his wife, Ginny, daughter Stacey Springsteen and her husband, Joe.

Honey Rand, former spokeswoman for the water district and now a consultant in Tampa, was among the first to hear of his death. She was attending a conference at Vail, Colo., with some of Mr. Harrell's former colleagues at the water management agency, commonly known as Swiftmud, when they got word.

"He was a very dedicated man," said Chuck Rainey, former Pinellas County commissioner who served on the water utility board in the 1990s, when it was constantly at odds with Swiftmud.

"He never got all the accolades he deserved from working on an almost impossible problem," Rainey said. "He had a vision and went forward with it. He didn't accomplish all he wanted, but he was as dedicated a man as I've ever known."

Mark Farrell, assistant executive director of Swiftmud when Mr. Harrell was board chairman, said: "Roy was the consummate out-of-the-box thinker who really helped those of us in the public sector think of new and different ways to deal with difficult problems. He was the last guy in the world to stand up and say, "I did this.' He was the model public servant, a man who made a real difference."

Mr. Harrell was considered the architect of the Partnership Plan, the idea that gave birth to all of the region's new alternative water supply sources, including the reservoir and the desalination plant.

His term as chairman came during the tumultuous days of the region's water wars with Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties at odds over groundwater pumping and the environmental damage it was causing.

He first proposed a partnership between Swiftmud and the region's water utility, then called the West Coast Regional Water Supply Authority and now Tampa Bay Water, that would provide a guaranteed water supply for the region for the next 20 years.

He served on the Swiftmud board from 1985 through 1998. Once described as a low-key fellow who tried to avoid publicity, he found himself in the spotlight in 2001 when he was crowned Mr. Sun during the 80th annual Festival of States Coronation Ball.

[Last modified January 26, 2006, 01:01:17]