Delays could boost cost of new water plant

Challenges to Hillsborough's new water treatment facility already have added $2-million and could go to $3.6-million.

By JEAN HELLER

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 6, 2000

CLEARWATER -- Delays caused by a legal challenge could nearly double the cost of on-time completion of a new water treatment plant, a key element in the expansion of regional drinking water supplies, the principal contractor says.

The $7.5-million Hillsborough County plant, designed to treat 60-million gallons a day of water siphoned from the Hillsborough and Alafia rivers and the Tampa Bypass Canal, already has amassed $2-million in cost overruns because of delays prompted by a Hillsborough citizens group, Save Our Bay and Canals, according to the contractor, U.S. Filter.

The longer a state Department of Administration hearing officer takes to decide the case, the more the cost of delay will grow, reaching more than $3.6-million if the decision goes to its deadline in November, U.S. Filter has told the staff of Tampa Bay Water, the region's largest water wholesaler.

If the board of Tampa Bay Water decides at the end of the case to accelerate construction with double shifts and other means to bring the facility on line by its September 2002 deadline, it will cost an additional $3.2-million. The TBW board will be asked Monday to allow its staff to negotiate these costs with U.S. Filter with an eye toward bringing them down.

"There's a lot of numbers they are going to have to prove to me," said Chuck Carden, project manager for TBW. "This elevator only goes down."

Although there is no chance that some additional expenses won't pile up, they might be the price the utility must pay to meet its obligation to reduce groundwater pumping from its 11 regional well fields from an average of 158-million gallons a day to 121-mgd by the end of 2002.

The added expense is not likely to show up on consumer water bills.

"We have $8-million to $9-million in the budget to purchase the land for the new reservoir," Carden said, referring to another water project planned for south Hillsborough County. "Swiftmud (the Southwest Florida Water Management District) will be discussing a proposal at their July meeting to buy the land for us. That would free up that money to pay for the additional costs."

It would be a commitment by Swiftmud beyond the $183-million already pledged to new water and conservation projects in the region through the Partnership Plan with Tampa Bay Water and its six member governments.

"If that doesn't go through, we have had several other projects come in under budget, and we could use those funds to cover the additional cost of the treatment plant," Carden said. "I don't see any chance that water consumers will be asked to pay for this."

The citizens group, SOBAC, was formed to oppose a desalination plant planned for the Big Bend area of south Hillsborough, but is legally challenging the water treatment plant as part of a larger strategy. If it prevails in its challenge to a variance requested in the plant's permitting process, it hopes to set a precedent that can be used for a similar challenge against the desal plant.

Had the challenge not materialized, construction on phase one of the treatment plant already would be under way. If the matter isn't resolved until November, construction could not begin before January or February, Carden said. A delay that long would require accelerated construction if the completion deadline is to be met. A hearing on the challenge begins Friday.

"We asked that the charges be dismissed, but the hearing officer said he wanted to hear the evidence," said Don Conn, general counsel to Tampa Bay Water. "If we feel after the hearing that the other side didn't make its case, we probably will renew the request for a dismissal."

The TBW board also will be asked Monday whether it wants to add 6-million gallons a day of capacity to the treatment plant while it still is in the design phase. The 10 percent increase would cost about $6.1-million if done before completion of the plant. That cost would rise to $11.5-million if the plant had to be retrofitted after it was in operation.

The board could find the suggestion tempting because 6-million gallons a day is about the size of some of the new well fields under consideration, and given the regional damage done by overpumping existing well fields, political opposition to new ones is intense.

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