Reclaimed water deal draws few big users

Financing the system hinges on selling enough reclaimed water, especially to big users, to cover construction and costs.

By STEVE HUETTEL

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 16, 2000

TAMPA -- It's an offer that should excite anyone who covets lush green lawns and leafy shrubs.

Run sprinklers to your heart's content, even in the depths of a drought. Pay at least 20 percent less per gallon. Get a free water meter that usually costs $350.

Seeking to build Tampa's first reclaimed water system, the city is making the pitch to some of South Tampa's thirstiest neighborhoods, from the sprawling lawns of Davis Islands to the manicured landscaping of Westshore's office buildings.

But officials are finding an unexpected pattern in who is and who isn't signing up for the system, scheduled to begin operating in 2003.

Fewer customers with separate yard irrigation meters -- assumed to be the biggest water users -- are enrolling than those without yard meters.

Officials insist the quirk doesn't threaten the project, which Mayor Dick Greco said he won't build if the city can't enroll enough people to make it cost-efficient.

With slightly more than 3,000 customers signed up through last week, the project is well on its way to making that goal by the Sept. 1 deadline, said Ralph Metcalf, the city sewer director.

"We are two-thirds of the way through our advertising campaign and at 80 percent of our (enrollment) goal," he said.

Officials originally projected that businesses and residents with extra meters would make up three out of every five subscribers. So far, the number is closer to two out of five.

That's important because the finances hinge on the city selling enough reclaimed water to pay off a $10-million construction bond plus operating costs. One office building with tens of thousands of dollars in landscaping is worth several homeowners who turn on sprinklers only when their lawns get crispy.

So why are the customers with the most to gain failing to sign up in large numbers?

Probably because a color brochure mailed in May and a letter from Greco sent last month didn't work as well with business customers as residents, said Deanne Roberts of Roberts Communications, the firm hired to market the project.

"The question is: did you get it to the right person?" Metcalf said.

Something certainly went wrong trying to sell the managers of 4200 W Cypress St., an office complex that has used more than 5.3-million gallons of city water to keep the landscape green this year.

Linda Montgomery, senior property manager, said she didn't see any material until after someone representing the city called her last week.

"We never saw anything until today," she said Friday. "We'll definitely take a good look at it and present it to the landlord."

Businesses and residents who haven't signed up will get telephone calls and, if necessary, knocks on the door from workers with registration forms, Roberts said.

The system initially will serve only Davis Islands and chain of neighborhoods stretching across the Interbay Peninsula. The area includes such swanky addresses as Hyde Park, Palma Ceia and Culbreath Isles.

Residents outside the area have complained it was engineered to provide cheap water to already privileged neighborhoods and Westshore businesses.

Jackie Burns, whose Lynwood neighborhood was left out, thought it was ironic the program hasn't met its goals in the handpicked neighborhoods yet.

"It was aimed at certain areas geographically, and we see that constantly (with city services)," she said.

City officials plead guilty to targeting neighborhoods that consume the most water for irrigation. True, they say, those are areas with lots of big lawns and office buildings.

"You don't build a McDonald's in a vegetarian neighborhood," Metcalf said. "You've got to go where the meat-eaters are."

The city was able to land a $12.5-million federal grant. That left the city to come up with $10-million. Officials plan to issue bonds backed by revenues from reclaimed water customers. By Sept. 1, they hope to have enough subscribers to make the project fly.

Plans call for extending the system through more of South Tampa and Westshore. But there aren't any guarantees the federal money will be available to make the same deal to those customers as people in the first phase are getting.

"We would make every effort to make it exactly the same," Metcalf said. "But we don't know what's going to happen."

- Steve Huettel can be reached at (813) 226-3384, or at huettel@sptimes.com.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.