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Water usage stumps board
By BILL VARIAN
© St. Petersburg Times, TAMPA -- Hillsborough commissioners considered several new get-tough watering rules Wednesday after learning their efforts to date have failed to stem the flow. Instead, they decided to ask the public whether to ban restaurants in unincorporated Hillsborough County from providing a glass of water unless requested by a customer. The vote to hold a public hearing Sept. 5 was 5-1, with Commissioner Jan Platt voting against the measure. "That's laughable," Platt said after the meeting. "That's just glasses of water. The board isn't taking this issue seriously." Commissioners also will consider at the public hearing changes to the way they charge for and monitor the use of reclaimed water. They considered much tougher action as they learned that consumption of well water in northwest Hillsborough climbed 3.1 percent in June and July compared to last year. Hillsborough is the only member of Tampa Bay Water that has failed to meet a required 5 percent reduction in water consumption ordered by the Southwest Florida Water Management District. But it's also growing faster than Pasco and Pinellas counties, adding 6,000 new water service hookups the past year. Wednesday, water department director Mike McWeeny floated seven new strategies to cut water use. Among them was a proposal that would tack as much as a 50 percent surcharge onto water bills for the thirstiest homeowners, and ban continuous watering for 30 days of newly planted lawns for the remainder of the rainy season, roughly the end of November. "If we're going to reduce our demand, we're going to have to do something different," McWeeny said. "The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expect different results." But commissioners rejected the tougher proposals. The board has refused before to ban continuous watering of new lawns that require more water to take root. On Wednesday, nursery owners told them that even the partial ban would hurt their already ailing businesses. In rejecting the tougher rules, Commissioner Jim Norman said he thought county residents have already done their share. "I think the proposal before us today is outrageous," he said. Norman seized on McWeeny's analysis that water consumption is down per capita. And he said it can't be helped if Hillsborough is growing faster than other governments. "I think we should go to Swiftmud and protect our community," Norman said. "We're not getting any credit for doing a good job. I think we've been good stewards." As part of the motion that passed, County Administrator Dan Kleman will ask Swiftmud for clarification on what it thinks Hillsborough should do.
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