Extra $2.50 to hit water bills

The city wants to recover the cost of buying from Tampa Bay Water, starting in August.

By JANET ZINK
Published July 20, 2007

TAMPA - City water customers should take a close look at their August water bills.

That's the first month Tampa will charge for water it has to buy from Tampa Bay Water, the regional utility, to supplement the supply from the Hillsborough River.

The charge will be identified as a "Tampa Bay Water surcharge" on water bills and should be $2.50 for typical household users, according to Steve Daignault, the city's administrator of public works and utilities.

Tampa City Council on Thursday approved the fee by a vote of 5-1, with John Dingfelder casting the dissenting vote and Joseph Caetano absent.

Dingfelder said he couldn't support the surcharge if the city administration wasn't willing to consider cutting loose about 200,000 water customers who live outside city limits. Dingfelder in the past raised the same issue, but received no support from Mayor Pam Iorio.

"Those customers represent a very thirsty group of people that are pulling out of our river," Dingfelder said. If the city didn't have to provide water to those people, the new charge might not be necessary, he said.

Tampa gets most of its water from the Hillsborough River. But in dry times, when demand increases and the river levels are low, the city buys water from Tampa Bay Water.

That cost is expected to reach $10-million this year, city officials say. Historically, the city has paid for those purchases out of a reserve fund. But the city now wants to recover the cost from customers.

The charge will be based on how much water customers use and how much the city has to buy. It will only appear on bills in the months following those times of the year when the city has to buy water.

If the fee had been in place during 2006, the annual charge to typical water customers would have been about $14.29, Daignault said.

Iorio has also proposed doubling the city's standard water rate over the next five years. Even with the increases, city of Tampa water rates will remain lower than most of those in surrounding areas.

"We've been taking care of ourselves at a very low rate," said council member Charlie Miranda, in response to Dingfelder's objections to the Tampa Bay Water surcharge.

City residents, he said, need to help pay for the water purchases.

Council member Tom Scott, a former Hillsborough County Commissioner, also dismissed Dingfelder's suggestion to stop supplying water to non-city residents.

"They are not freeloading," Scott said. "They're paying more than city residents are paying."

City officials should be thinking regionally on all types of issues, he said.

"The days of standing by ourselves are gone," Scott said.

Dingfelder said he believes in regionalism, but he was elected by city of Tampa residents and feels an obligation to consider them first.

Asked Dingfelder: "Why should we provide water when it's to the detriment of our city residents?"

Janet Zink can be reached at jzink@sptimes.com or 813 226-3401.

[Last modified July 20, 2007, 00:10:10]