Tampa again seen as water source

By JEAN HELLER

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 11, 2000

CLEARWATER -- Suddenly, in the world of water, everything old is new again.

After voting Monday to accelerate design and construction of a new water treatment plant and increase its capacity by 10 percent, the board of Tampa Bay Water vowed to take another look at a proposal to buy excess water from Tampa.

The same proposal was rejected in February 1999, when Tampa disclosed it planned to modernize and expand its own treatment plant to accommodate growth, and could design in added capacity for everybody else.

Now that a legal challenge has stalled work on the new treatment plant and a 20-month drought has demonstrated how close the area treads to the edge of disaster where water supplies are concerned, Tampa's proposal appeared to have considerable support among board members. A formal proposal will be made in September.

Tampa's plant has a capacity to treat 80-million gallons of water from the Hillsborough River each day. The city's plan was to enlarge it to 100-mgd. If the water board and the Tampa City Council approve, it would be enlarged to 120-mgd. About 50-mgd would be available for sale to the utility during the rainy season. The project would be completed in January 2002.

Tampa City Council member Charlie Miranda, the city's representative on the water board, has been predicting for 17 months the utility would come back to his community, hat in hand, looking for water. His temper flared Monday over what he believes is the myopic and predictable actions of the board in ignoring the ideas and concerns of some member governments, including his.

The board debated for three hours the twin issues of accelerating and enlarging the new water treatment project. According to the contractor, two months of delays caused by the legal challenge brought by a citizens' group already has cost $2-million, and the price of doing nothing would continue to mount at a rate of about $400,000 a month.

But those losses would stop if Tampa Bay Water agreed to speed up design of the plant and, when construction begins, use two shifts to build it. The board chose to go with the original deadline. In other matters, the board learned that Tampa, by next month, will be able to supply the utility with about 10-mgd of water a day for the duration of this rainy season and next.

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