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Water deal has loophole the size of an aqueduct

By ANDREW SKERRITT
Published January 27, 2006

The Southwest Florida Water Management District blinked. And folks are going to be fuming for a long time.

The agency backed away from its demand that in exchange for $85-million in financial support, Tampa Bay Water must produce 25-million gallons of water a day at the Apollo Beach desalination plant.

Instead, by a 7-4 vote, the board signed off on an agreement that says the agency will pay $85-million in three installments for the plant as long as Tampa Bay Water achieves certain production levels.

Pasco County Commissioner Ted Schrader, chairman of Tampa Bay Water, worked on the deal with his Swiftmud counterpart. He sees it as win for the whole region.

But given the regional water supplier's history, it's too early to cheer.

Swiftmud governing board members were lobbied by Tampa Bay Water officials right up until the vote. Two board members who voted for the agreement called their decision distasteful. Another board member said he was holding his nose and voting for the deal.

Instead of getting a plant that produces 25-million gallons of water a day, taxpayers may get one that will average 12.5-million gallons a day.

"The mediation agreement is not worth the paper it's written on," said Hillsborough County's Janet Kovach, one of the dissenting voters.

Environmentalists and activists stood up one by one to denounce the agreement. They felt cheated.

As part of the deal, Tampa Bay Water, which supplies water to utilities in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties, would try to reduce pumping at the Central Wellfield System, which includes wells in Pasco, to about 90-million gallons a day. According to the Tampa Bay Water Web site, those wells were averaging 99.5-million gallons a day as of Dec. 31.

Under Swiftmud's 1998 partnership agreement with Tampa Bay Water, the 90-million gallon goal was not required until 2008.

Being two years ahead of schedule, Swiftmud officials said, gives them more time to study the long-term environmental impact of that level of underground pumping. Some say 90-million gallons a day damages the environment. It's time to find out the truth.

The Swiftmud board voted for the deal after its legal counsel advised it was better to sign on the dotted line than to spend the next two years in court and face an uncertain outcome.

And even if the agency had gone to court and won, the argument goes, by the time that was over, there would be just two years left in the existing agreement, and that wouldn't give Swiftmud enough time to get information on the level of pumping that's safe for the environment.

The document talks about Tampa Bay Water's making its "best efforts." Talk about legal loopholes.

There was no guarantee that Swiftmud would have sued, but citizens groups upset by the agreement are contemplating that option. Letting a judge decide is preferable to burdening taxpayers with a bad deal.

So what's the worse case scenario from this deal?

No one wants Tampa Bay Water to fail to meet its desal production requirements and lose money. But if there is another drought and the desal plant can't help meet daily consumption demands, Tampa Bay Water will have to resort to the kind of underground pumping that got this region in trouble in the 1990s. This could be an expensive lesson.

But that won't be the final expense. Even as the desal plant is being repaired to resume operating, Tampa Bay Water is planning other more expensive water projects. Swiftmud is going to be asked to help pay for those projects. There's no guarantee the agency will stand its ground the next time.

Andrew Skerritt can be reached at 813 909-4602 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 4602. His e-mail address is askerritt@sptimes.com

[Last modified January 27, 2006, 01:21:16]