Water Board Tackles Desalination Dispute

Aug. 16–CLEARWATER — Tampa Bay Water, the region’s water supplier, wants to end a dispute over its troubled desalination plant before the matter goes to court.

The disagreement concerns how much water the plant near Apollo Beach will produce once it is operating.

The Southwest Water Management District, known as Swiftmud, wants the plant to produce 25 million gallons of water a day. Tampa Bay Water, the plant’s owner, wants the plant to run at a lower capacity some of the time.

Swiftmud agreed to pay $85 million for the plant in return for Tampa Bay Water reducing pumping from 11 wellfields in Pasco and Hillsborough counties. The water management district could refuse to pay.

Tampa Bay Water’s board on Monday voted to begin negotiations with Swiftmud, the first step of a formal process to resolve disagreements between the water management district and the water supplier.

While agreeing to open negotiations, Hillsborough Commissioner Mark Sharpe voted against the motion because it included a statement that the plant was never intended to run at full capacity.

“When it was sold to the community, it was to be run at 25 million gallons a day. We should honor that,” Sharpe said after the meeting.

Tampa Bay Water officials contend nothing in the agreement with Swiftmud sets the plant’s production.

If negotiations fail, the issue goes to a mediator. The final step is a lawsuit.

The plant is shut down for repairs until November 2006. Expensive filters that remove salt from the water clog too quickly, driving up operating costs and requiring frequent replacement.

Tampa Bay Water envisions the plant producing an average of 15 million gallons a day after repairs are finished. It could produce as much as 28.75 million gallons a day or 10 million gallons daily, said Jerry Maxwell, the utility’s general manager.

Producing 1,000 gallons of water at the desalination plant costs $1.58 more than the same amount pumped from wellfields.

Maxwell said the plant will be used for more production as growth pushes up the region’s water use.

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