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Letter to the editor

Reclaimed water flows when it shouldn't have

A park receives a double deluge. For now, users are asked to keep cutting back.

By SHEILA MULLANE ESTRADA
Published June 6, 2007

ST. PETE BEACH - Sprinklers were running at full force in at least one city park all day Saturday despite countywide watering restrictions and a daylong deluge caused by Tropical Storm Barry.

"Sometimes we have issues with the timers, " City Manager Mike Bonfield explained.

According to Carol Gilliland, a Belle Vista resident, reclaimed-water sprinklers in a small park in her neighborhood were turned on throughout the day Saturday. She said she reported a similar occurrence in May to city officials.

City parks are irrigated with reclaimed water provided by Pinellas County's South Cross Bayou Treatment Plant. More than 2, 900 city residents are also connected to the reclaimed-water system.

The sprinkling incident occurred during a partial county restriction on use of reclaimed water between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

About a week ago, reclaimed-water transmission lines were actually shut down during those hours when storage tanks for reclaimed water could not be refilled fast enough to meet demand.

That situation changed Saturday when heavy rains brought by Tropical Storm Barry infiltrated the county's wastewater system and sharply increased the amount of water available to the reclaimed-water treatment plant.

"We reopened the reclaimed-water transmission lines Saturday because of the large influx from the storm event, " said Jim Dulaney, wastewater treatment manager at the South Cross Bayou Treatment Plant.

Dulaney said the transmission lines will remain open this week, but may be closed again next week if absence of normal rains return the area to drought conditions.

He asked that reclaimed-water users voluntarily continue to refrain from watering their lawns during the restricted daytime hours, even though the irrigation water may be available.

Bill Miller, utilities superintendent for St. Pete Beach, said the city is "in the process" of changing sprinkler timers to avoid any irrigation during the restricted hours.

The timers are maintained by the city's parks division. When the reclaimed-water system was installed more than a decade ago, Miller said county reclaimed-water officials asked the city not to change its timers.

At the time, St. Pete Beach, South Pasadena and the Bear Creek unincorporated area were the only customers for reclaimed water. Since then, reclaimed-water transmission lines have been extended along the beaches to Sand Key and to Pinellas Park and other south county unincorporated areas.

"They had way too much reclaimed water because there was only limited demand then. They had a surplus and had to get rid of it, " Miller said. "Now we have too much demand for a limited supply."

Miller said that if residents do see sprinklers operating during restricted hours, they should contact Jeremy Hockenbury, the city's parks superintendent.

About 30 city parks and properties are irrigated with electronically timed reclaimed-water sprinkling systems set to run between 5 and 6 in the morning and 8 to 9 in the evening.

Hockenbury said the timers can be "thrown off" by storm-caused power outages, as occurred Saturday.

The park staff, which does not work on weekends, began resetting "quite a few" sprinkler timers Monday, he said.

Fast Facts:

Update on reclaimed-water use

Reclaimed water is again available around the clock, at least temporarily, but users are urged to voluntarily refrain from irrigating lawns between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Water infiltration caused by heavy rains Saturday refilled reclaimed-water storage tanks at the South Cross Bayou Water Treatment Plant, leading water officials to reopen reclaimed-water transmission lines during daytime hours. Reclaimed-water lines could be closed again as early as next week if drought conditions return.

[Last modified June 5, 2007, 22:25:35]