Another beach city in line for settlement

Treasure Island thinks it now has a way to calculate how much it can expect to pay in a sewer dispute.

By AMY WIMMER

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 10, 2001

TREASURE ISLAND -- Now that St. Pete Beach has resolved its $4.5-million sewer dispute with St. Petersburg, Treasure Island has a $500,000 one to settle.

Treasure Island has watched its neighbors' argument closely since St. Pete Beach filed suit against St. Petersburg in 1998.

St. Pete Beach and Treasure Island had similar concerns about how St. Petersburg billed them for sewage treatment, and Treasure Island was hoping the lawsuit would produce a model it could use for resolving its own disagreement with St. Petersburg.

On Wednesday the St. Petersburg City Council and St. Pete Beach City Commission both approved a settlement agreement. St. Pete Beach will pay St. Petersburg $2.8-million, a portion of the money the beach city has withheld from its sewage treatment payments to St. Petersburg since 1994.

"I'm pleased that they've settled," Treasure Island City Manager Chuck Coward said. "I think it's in everyone's best interest that these issues be settled and all of us be able to move forward without litigation."

The dispute revolved around whether St. Petersburg was overbilling the beaches. St. Pete Beach and Treasure Island allege that St. Petersburg was charging the small beach cities for the upkeep of St. Petersburg's entire system, rather than the sewer plant that aids the beaches.

Both small cities' sewer plants were shut down by environmental regulators in the 1970s, and St. Petersburg stepped in to handle their volume.

"When the (Environmental Protection Agency) shut down our plants, St. Pete Beach's and Treasure Island's respectively, St. Petersburg received a very nice federal grant to expand to treat our sewage," Coward said. "In turn, in getting those EPA grants, St. Petersburg guaranteed us that we would have to pay only to treat our sewage."

Coward said he will likely meet with St. Pete Beach City Manager Carl Schwing to go over the details of the city's agreement with St. Petersburg. Treasure Island, like St. Pete Beach, has been paying only a portion of what St. Petersburg bills, though Treasure Island has not withheld payments for as many years as St. Pete Beach.

While St. Petersburg claimed St. Pete Beach owed it $4.5-million, Treasure Island owes $581,457.

Now that the settlement is complete, Treasure Island can use it to calculate how much it can expect to pay St. Petersburg.

"I would hope that Treasure Island and St. Petersburg would sit down and use that as a model," Coward said.

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