Review suspends sinkhole spending

By DAVID DeCAMP, Times Staff Writer
Published November 7, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Commissioner Pat Mulieri scolded the county. Colleague Ann Hildebrand wants some answers.

DADE CITY -With sinkholes set to suck another $4-million into a budget-busting utility project, Pasco County halted spending on it Tuesday until a review explains why costs ran amok.

The County Commission also scolded county officials and private engineers over the construction project, a reclaimed water reservoir in Land O'Lakes mandated by the state to help cure environmental violations.

"I think we were penny wise and pound foolish," Commissioner Pat Mulieri said.

In a 2006 order aimed at Pasco's utility failures, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection ordered the county to build the reservoir to improve water storage capacity. It's on 20 acres near U.S. 41 and Ehren Cutoff.

In January, construction of the project was bid out at $13-million. It rose beyond $18-million this summer after sinkholes turned up at the site. On Tuesday, King Engineering and QORE Property Sciences, the geotechnical engineer, gave the commission a plan to spend close to $4-million more.

Total new cost to utility customers: $22.7-million.

"I've got to tell you, this has been a really unsettling presentation, and I guess I'd like to know if you are going to make lemonade out of lemons," Commissioner Ann Hildebrand said.

The engineers' presentation, made with Bruce Kennedy, the assistant county administrator who oversees utilities, revealed a series of possible miscues in planning the project:

-King Engineering principal engineer Tom O'Connor and QORE engineer Larry Maron said the county chose a design without a more protective liner to save more than $2-million.

Because an embankment collapsed and sinkholes keep turning up, the engineers' $4-million request includes building a liner and more grouting. And it would raise the cost overrun to $8-million.

-The county chose a site near a subregional sewage plant because it was near utility lines and it already owned the land, Kennedy said. But the site had been used for ponds to slowly allow excess water to percolate into the ground for 14 years.

The past drainage pond usage, though not significant compared with other county operations, could have helped cause more sinkholes, Maron acknowledged.

"So a 'perc pond' is made to drain?" Commissioner Michael Cox asked, getting a yes. "And a reservoir is made to retain."

- Pasco already is part of a region dubbed "Sinkhole Alley," and Maron said most of the county has an above-average risk for sinkholes.

Mike Wightman, president of GeoView, the firm that conducted tests for sinkholes at the site, said his company has investigated few sinkhole reports in the site's general area within the past five years. But when tests on-site started, he said, there was a "pretty dramatic response."

Even the county's decision to seek an independent review went awry. The County Attorney's Office is paying Les Bromwell of BCI Engineers & Scientists up to $25,000 to assess what went wrong and why. County Attorney Robert Sumner demanded a separate assessment because the county might sue one of the firms involved.

But Bromwell acknowledged he added his "thoughts" about how to solve the problems while attending meetings with private engineers and county officials on the project. He ended up on their list of people supporting the latest costs, though he and county officials suggested he wasn't endorsing them.

"I guess you could say I'm implicated," Bromwell said, "but I saw a quandary that needed to be resolved."

Bromwell is expected to deliver his report on Nov. 27. On Cox's cue, the commission delayed freeing up money for the extra $4-million until then.

[Last modified November 6, 2007, 22:10:17]