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City strikes a deal: one water for one filter
By JULIANNE WU SEMINOLE -- Since Nov. 1, reclaimed water has been piped to the Seminole City Park and City Hall. "We want to stress this is a joint project and it is limited," said Mitch Bobowski, Seminole's general services director. "We are doing something for the county and, in turn, are able to use reclaimed water for our newly renovated park." In exchange for the reclaimed water to irrigate the nearly $1-million worth of new sod, trees, native Florida plants and xeriscaped plants in the approximately 13-acre park, the city of Seminole has agreed to let the county's utilities department put up a "pigging station" on the park property. Allen Godfrey, Seminole's public works director, explained a pigging station is a line that filters out all the construction debris. "It's like a sediment tank," he said. The distribution line that is supplying the Seminole City Park and City Hall with reclaimed water is hooked up to the underground pipes along the Seminole portion of the Pinellas Trail, which abuts the City Hall property and the park at 7464 Ridge Road. "We were asked to do this because we are at the very end of the construction line at that point along the trail," Bobowski said. "By purging the water, the county is also keeping the reclaimed water flowing for the rest of the project (to the south)." A byproduct of the deal between the city and the county is that Seminole is also able to use a reclaimed water hydrant to fill its 2,200-gallon water truck in order to irrigate the beautified traffic medians along Seminole and Park Boulevards and along Park Street. The system is so new, said Bobowski, that the city has no idea of how much water it is using each week or what the monthly cost will be. "It takes about two months to know the accuracy of the system," he said. "But, like any other industrial or commercial property, we will be metered." The city of Seminole has already paid a $780 hookup fee. Godfrey, the public works director, said using reclaimed water "has been very beneficial to us. We are not seeing stains on the sides of our buildings like we did from the sulfur content of the well water we used. And we haven't had any complaints about the smell of reclaimed water." Bobowski stressed that the Seminole City Park is the only public property in Seminole that will be receiving reclaimed water for several years to come. "The Recreation Center, the library, St. Petersburg College ... none of those are on it at this point," he said. "Right now, the county's priority is to pipe the reclaimed water to the beach towns. We'll have to wait our turn just like anyone else." The public places Bobowski mentioned are in the area that will not get reclaimed water for at least three to five years, said Todd Tanberg, the county utilities' director of alternate water sources. -- Information from Times files used in this report.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
