DEP regulations could cost water customers

Thousands of Tampa Bay area property owners could soon be saddled with the cost of installing devises to prevent the contamination of public drinking-water supplies.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection plans to begin enforcing rules that require government- and investor-owned utilities across the state to retrofit homes and businesses with backflow protection. Homeowners and businesses will have to cover the costs of the devices, which can range from $300 to $25,000 including instillation costs.

The new rules, expected to go into effect by the end of the year, will affect homeowners with reclaimed water and irrigation systems that use water pumped from wells, lakes and ponds as well as businesses and multifamily residences with fire-sprinkler systems.

In addition, home and business owners who need backflow protection would be required to pay a licensed plumber between $25 and $75 every year to test the devices.

Tampa officials argue the regulations will place an unfair financial burden on the city, and especially on business owners and residents, who will shoulder the bulk of the costs.

"There's never a good time for an unfunded mandate," said Brad Baird, director of the city's water department. "Now, in the midst of a recession, is certainly a bad time."

DEP officials said they are mindful of the cost burden but said the rules are necessary to prevent the backflow of chemicals, bacteria and viruses into the public's drinking water.

State environmental regulators decided to start enforcing the rules - which have been on the books since 1987 - this year after a residential subdivision in South Florida was discovered using surface water to water its lawns without backflow protection.

Businesses and homeowners will be given until 2015 to comply with the regulations, which will also apply to private utilities that serve residential and commercial customers.

"The rules will apply to all public water systems, regardless of whether the system is government-owned or investor-owned," said Dee Ann Miller, a DEP spokeswoman.

David Brown, a 71-year-old Sun City retiree who has been lobbying against the DEP requirements, said the threat to the drinking-water supply is "grossly overexaggerated."

"Backflow valves are an expensive solution to a problem that simply doesn't exist," said Brown, the county's 2008 winner of the Moral Courage Award for fighting the county's efforts to require backflow valves. "No one has ever died in the state of Florida from backflow contamination."

Still, water experts say there is a risk with not having backflow protection, which prevents contaminated water from flowing into the public system by maintaining higher pressure.

Reclaimed water is known to contain pharmaceuticals and other micropollutants. Fresh water from ponds and lakes can contain fertilizers and other hazardous substances.

"It's a good idea to have these things in place, especially here in Florida where we have a lot of reclaimed and alternative water sources," said Daniel Yeh, an assistant professor at the University of South Florida's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. "You want to be sure that when someone turns on the tap what comes out is clean."

Tampa officials said they are aware of the potential risks and have for years required new homes and businesses to comply with standards by installing backflow valves. Existing properties that undergo renovations must also install the devises, if needed.

But city officials say forcing thousands of commercial and residential customers, within such a short period of time, to comply with the rules will create a financial hardship.

"Nobody has that kind of money right now," Baird said. "It's an unreasonable request."

Exactly how many of the city's water customers will be required to install the valves has not been determined. The city would first have to inspect all of its 149,800 water hookups, and that would mean hiring 19 new workers at a cost of $1.2 million, Baird said.

City officials have estimated that retrofitting the 1,700 commercial and multifamily units in the city's water service area with backflow prevention would cost about $34 million.

There's also the issue of property rights. Water department crews for the city and Hillsborough County have been advised by their legal departments not to trespass on residential land without owner permission to see whether the property has backflow valves.

Although Hillsborough officials agree with the need for backflow prevention, they are equally concerned about the impact of the DEP regulations as proposed.

About 41,000 homes and businesses within the county have backflow valves, and the water department already requires yearly inspections of the devices.

In a letter to the DEP, Paul Vanderploog, the county's water resource director, estimated that complying with the rules could cost $20 million over the next five years.

"In these tough economic times, the cost is unreasonable to bear," he wrote.