Water board okays second desal plant

By JEAN HELLER

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 12, 2001

CLEARWATER -- Tampa Bay Water set the stage Monday for a second large seawater desalination plant and a series of ground-water and surface-water projects designed to supply the region's needs to 2014.

But it wasn't easy.

The debate was intense, angry and occasionally personal, pitting Hillsborough County against the other five members of the utility's board. When it ended, Tampa Bay Water had approved:

A 25-million-gallon-a-day desal plant somewhere in Pasco or Pinellas counties, near the mouth of the Anclote River. The plant could be expanded to 35-million gallons a day, just as the desalination project in southwest Hillsborough County is designed.

A 10-million-gallon-a-day well field on the Cone Ranch site in northeast Hillsborough County.

A 5-million-gallon-a-day brackish water desalination plant in Pinellas Park near Bryan Dairy Road.

A 4-million-gallon-a-day well field called Cypress Bridge II in central Pasco County.

The diversion of 3.5-million gallons of groundwater a day now used by light industry, Crystals International, in Plant City and then dumped into a drainage ditch. This project would recapture the dumped water for potable use.

As new water sources come on line, utility bills will grow to pay the cost. In the worst case -- if Tampa Bay Water built the most expensive options for everything -- the smallest residential water users would see their bills rise by nearly $17 a month between now and 2008. In the next years they would be expected to rise only slightly.

Each of the projects has detractors. As with every other step the region has taken toward meeting future water needs, this one did not come without raised voices and thinly veiled threats of political retribution.

The biggest blowup of the day occurred after Hillsborough Commissioners Ronda Storms and Chris Hart asked that each project in the new package be debated and voted on individually.

Pinellas Commissioner Susan Latvala objected and offered a motion to accept the whole package.

"We have a job to do, a serious job to do, and little time to do it," Latvala said. "Let's not be political, each of us voting against the projects in our back yard. Let's show a little leadership here."

Moments later, Storms declared that the region's concerns were not her concerns.

"I'm here to see that the voice of my district is heard," she said, her voice rising. "It may be that others are willing to lay aside their responsibilities to their districts and look at things on a regional basis, and maybe that makes you more visionary than me. But I can't be bifurcated."

Pasco Commissioner Ann Hildebrand, chairman of the TBW board, replied: "I don't think that anybody sitting on this board wants to have on their watch a failure to supply water for this region."

Storms then suggested that the board members "trade votes" to get their least favorite projects off the table. No one accepted the offer.

"I hear everybody's concerns, but we're not going to please everybody," said New Port Richey Mayor Wendy Brenner. "We have to make some decisions."

The package passed on a 7-2 vote, with Storms and Hart voting no.

Earlier in the meeting, state Rep. Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City, warned board members to be prepared for the political consequences of voting for projects such as Cone Ranch.

"We will be watching," Byrd said.

In the end, Cone Ranch might be a non-issue.

Pasco commissioner Ted Schrader said a senior staff member at the Southwest Florida Water Management District had told him it would be difficult, if not impossible, to permit a new well field at Cone Ranch.

It is an over-pumped area in Pasco, and a drawdown of water could have an adverse impact on the Hillsborough River, the city of Tampa's principal water source.

The board made no decision on a specific site in the Anclote area. It also did not decide whether brine would be pumped onshore or piped to sites several miles offshore, a more expensive option.

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