Is county using city's water?

Port Richey may have solved the case of missing water.

By CAMILLE C. SPENCER, Times Staff Writer
Published December 14, 2007

PORT RICHEY - Jim Mathieu thinks he's found the culprit of the city's missing water: Pasco County.

"We're about 99 percent sure," said Mathieu, interim city manager.

To see if Mathieu's assumptions are true, workers plan to shut off the water for about an hour early this morning to test a location where the city and the county's water lines are in close proximity: Gulf View Square mall.

"There are numerous old pipes in our system below the mall," Mathieu said. "We'll definitely know if there's a double tap."

Mathieu estimates the water loss has cost the city about a half-million dollars a year for at least the past three years. If it has been going on since the mall was built two decades ago, Mathieu said he has no problem asking the county for millions in back pay.

"I don't think that's a contentious thing," Mathieu said. "I think the county is easy to deal with. So yeah, I'd ask. If they've been getting our water for nothing, it's only fair."

Problems with Port Richey's water surfaced a few months ago. Mathieu ran a report to see if the city's water was being used efficiently and discovered about 25 percent of its water was unaccounted for.

Since then, Mathieu and the city's utility department have been looking for the source of the water loss.

On Thursday, Mathieu and workers from Port Richey and Pasco County's utility departments met to discuss the issue.

Bruce Kennedy, assistant county administrator for utility services, said although he was aware county workers were working with Port Richey this week to find the source of the problem, he doesn't think the county is to blame.

"We are glad to help and don't believe there is an issue," he said. "My people in the field don't believe there's any cross-connection like that. We're pretty familiar with the distribution system we have out there."

Asked if he would compensate Port Richey for the water loss if the county is found to be at fault, Kennedy said, "Until we know what we're dealing with, it wouldn't be appropriate to talk about resolution of a problem when a problem may not exist."

Mathieu said Thursday he thinks it's possible that long ago, someone made a mistake connecting the mall's water lines, which are supposed to be provided by the county.

"What probably happened is, when the mall was built or sometime thereafter, they connected to our line instead of the county," he said. "Whenever a connection is made, somebody has to sign off on it. If that's the case, somebody made a mistake."

Camille C. Spencer can be reached at cspencer@sptimes.com or 727 869-6229.

[Last modified December 13, 2007, 22:15:17]