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Some are strongly for, others against the idea of a desal plant near the Anclote River. A key issue: where the brine will discharge.
By KATHERINE GAZELLA and JAMES THORNER
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 18, 2001
In his travels throughout the world, Tony Leisner has seen desalination plants that serve as the main water source in parts of Italy and Israel. And he has thought: Why don't we have one of those?
In the next five years, a seawater desalination plant could be built a few doors from his home on the Anclote River, and Leisner supports the idea. He doesn't care if he catches a glimpse of the plant as he steers his boat down the river toward the gulf, as long as the region continues to have a stable supply of freshwater.
"We're a little behind the curve," the Tarpon Springs resident said last week.
Not so fast, others say. Some residents and officials in northern Pinellas and western Pasco are wary of a renewed effort by Tampa Bay Water to put a desalination plant near the mouth of the Anclote River. Several said they worry what effect the brine discharged from the plant would have on sponge beds and other marine life.
"I think it would be very destructive to the estuary," said Mary Mosley, a longtime environmental activist from Tarpon Springs. "By all means, build a desal plant. But don't build it where it will affect the estuary."
Members of Tampa Bay Water, the region's water utility, last week approved a general plan for a 25-million-gallons-a-day desalination plant somewhere near the Pinellas-Pasco county line.
Members of Tampa Bay Water have discussed placing the intake and discharge pipes miles out into the gulf. But the organization has not made decisions about possible locations for the plant, how far offshore the brine would be discharged or other details, said Michelle Robinson, spokeswoman for Tampa Bay Water.
Reaction was mixed among residents and officials in Tarpon Springs and Pasco County. Some people said they understand the need for a desalination plant, especially in the midst of a drought. Others said the potential environmental problems could outweigh the benefits of having another water source.
"I don't know exactly what it means environmentally. I think we all need to be more educated," said Pam Aide of Tarpon Springs, whose house backs up to the Anclote River. "But they need to do something."
The plant will be necessary to help meet the region's water needs in the future, Robinson said. She said the plant probably would be two stories and about the size of a Winn-Dixie supercenter.
If everything goes according to schedule, a site will be established by mid-2002, she said. The plant could be operational by 2005 or 2006, she said.
In 1998, residents and local politicians fought against a proposed desalination plant at Anclote Road and Industrial Boulevard, in an industrial area on the opposite side of the river from the Sponge Docks. Tampa Bay Water also proposed building a plant near Florida Power's Anclote plant, just across the Pasco County line.
Tampa Bay Water ultimately decided to build the area's first desalination plant in south Hillsborough County, next to Tampa Electric Co.'s Big Bend power plant.
Tarpon Springs City Commissioner Beverley Billiris has vivid memories of the public's reaction to the previous proposal. Meetings about the issue were packed, and many of the people spoke against the plant.
Even so, she predicted, some people may change their minds about a desalination plant because of the drought.
"Do I think Florida needs desal? Probably this is the worst it's ever been," Billiris said. "This year has been a rude awakening."
She said she would only be willing to support a plant if the discharge is taken far out into the gulf. She worries that dumping the brine closer to shore could seriously damage marine life and sponge beds.
Other residents of southern Pasco and Tarpon Springs said they might support the plant if the pipes are taken far into the gulf.
"Am I supportive? Not just yet," said Baillie's Bluff resident Bruce Dickey, whose home might face a desalination plant. "I would want to see how and where they're proposing to run the pipes out."
Dickey and his neighbors spent much of last year fighting an interstate natural gas pipeline proposed near Anclote, a project later scrapped in favor of a pipeline in Manatee County.
If Tampa Bay Water ever considered dumping brine near the river estuary, the water board could kiss goodbye to the support of Chuck Lehr, owner of Super Sport and Scuba in New Port Richey.
Lehr said the desal plant should discharge the leftover brine into what he calls a desert: a section of deeper water already denuded of marine life.
But he wondered whether desal was the solution to water shortages. Why not seek out surface water for the Tampa Bay region in counties farther north such as Hernando, Citrus and Levy?
"This is not just a regional problem, this is a state problem," Lehr said. "I know it's a political football, but we need to tap other parts of state."
Jim Kolianos, who lives along the Anclote River in Tarpon Springs, said he would be inclined to support a desal plant if the discharge is dumped several miles into the gulf.
Kolianos brushed aside some people's concerns about the appearance of the plant, which could go next to a chugging smokestack operated by Florida Power at the Pinellas-Pasco line.
"It can't look any worse than the Florida Power plant," said Kolianos, who has a perfect view of the plant from his back yard.
While no details of the proposed plant have been worked out, Robinson said the plant probably would look like an office-style warehouse.
"You could probably drive by it and not think anything of it. It will not be large, by any means," she said. "It certainly won't be like a power plant."
No matter how nice it looks, the aesthetics of the plant probably won't be enough to win over some residents and local officials.
"I think it needs more research," Tarpon Springs City Commissioner Karen Brayboy said. "I still don't think they've adequately proven that it won't have an effect on marine life."
The new Naturecoast Sierra Club, formed by Pasco environmental activist Clay Colson, has yet to take a position on the Anclote plant.
But Colson said desal is a two-edged sword: Though the plant would allow the water agency to slow its destructive groundwater pumping in Pasco, it may exacerbate water shortages in the long run.
"Successful desalination will promote the powers that be to claim there's an endless drought-proof source of water, which will promote more sprawl and development in our state," Colson said.
For Leisner, the proposed plant is a way for Pinellas and Pasco counties to catch up with other parts of the world. He has seen desalination plants that seemed to work smoothly.
He knows that other residents of Tarpon Springs and south Pasco won't feel the same way. But he thinks the plant has to go somewhere, and he said the ideal spot may be up the river from his house, next to the Florida Power plant.
"I'd love to be one of those not-in-my-backyard people," he said. "But that's probably the best place for it."
- Staff writer Katherine Gazella can be reached at (727) 445-4182.