Clearwater changes plan for water treatment plant

As negotiations with Tampa Bay Water founder, the city decides to build the treatment plant itself and finish in 2003.

By CHRISTINA HEADRICK

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 1, 2001

CLEARWATER -- The city is changing course in midstream on a plan to build a reverse-osmosis water treatment plant to boost drinking water supplies and ease a regional water crunch.

Last fall, officials announced that Tampa Bay Water, the region's water supplier, would build a treatment plant for the city on a fast-paced schedule by the end of this year. Then Clearwater would buy the plant for as much as $9.85-million.

Now the city is planning to build the plant on its own, going at a slower pace to complete it in April 2003 for an estimated cost of $8.2-million -- as long as the City Commission approves after the March 13 election, in which three of the body's five seats are up for grabs. Meanwhile, Clearwater would boost pumping of underground drinking water from the city's well fields around the city by year's end. City water production would increase from 3-million gallons of water per day to about 5-million gallons, also with the new commission's approval.

The boost would help the region's water supply in the short term, while giving the city more time to plan the water treatment plant and save money building it on a slower schedule, said Mahshid Arasteh, Clearwater's public works administrator.

A feasibility study begun last fall has shown that the increase in pumping during the next 2 to 5 years was realistic and water quality will be fine, said Amanda Rice, a Tampa Bay Water project engineer.

Eventually, however, the city needs to build a treatment plant to filter its pumped water, because salt levels in the water are expected to rise gradually and exceed federal drinking-water standards, Rice said.

Once the plant is built at Sid Lickton Field, 714 Saturn Ave. in central Clearwater, it will cost $1.2-million a year to operate, by city estimates.

The change in approach comes after weeks of unfinished negotiations with Tampa Bay Water to hammer out the previous deal.

Last fall, the city agreed to chip in about $270,000 for the $700,000 feasibility study and design of the plant -- with the understanding the commission would vote again later whether to build the project.

If the city builds its own plant, said Assistant City Manager Garry Brumback, Clearwater will use the results of the design study, financed mostly by Tampa Bay Water.

The city has held two public meetings so far about a new water plant, the most recent last week. About 160 people have attended the sessions.

Neighbors of the proposed plant have been particularly concerned that boosting the city's pumping of underground water could cause sinkholes, make lawn-watering wells go dry or deplete the water level in nearby Lake Hobart.

Rice said that local geological data indicate that a clay layer separates the aquifer from upper groundwater supplies, so pumping for the water plant should not have an effect on sinkholes, lawn-watering wells or Lake Hobart.

Andy Neff, Clearwater's public utilities director, said the plant should save residents money in the long run. It is being financed by a 40 percent increase in water and sewer rates that will be imposed in steps through 2004.

The cost of water produced by the proposed plant is estimated to be $1.68 per thousand gallons, compared with the current rate of $1.79 that the city pays Pinellas County to buy water for resale to residents, Neff said.

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