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Water Board Expects To Meet Usage Needs

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By JULIA FERRANTE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 25, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - Tampa Bay Water is poised to provide for future needs as more people move to the area and demands continue to grow, the regional authority's general manager told Pasco County officials.

Gerald Seeber, who addressed the board at a meeting this week in New Port Richey, said Tampa Bay Water has reduced groundwater pumping significantly since 2002, in part because of increased collections of surface water from rivers and better production at a desalination plant in Apollo Beach.

Tampa Bay Water and its member governments are obligated to reduce groundwater pumping and find alternative water sources. The use of alternatives has decreased groundwater pumping from about 150 million in 2002 to about 83 million gallons a day now, said Seeber, who formerly was New Port Richey's city manager. About 67 percent of the water supply comes from groundwater.

"In 2002, it was all groundwater," Seeber said.

The regional authority was formed in the 1990s to alleviate conflicts between Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties and their major cities, which were battling for resources in what was known as the "water wars." Member governments now make decisions about where potable water should come from and how to produce more of it.

Pasco officials have been vigilant about protecting their groundwater resources, which were showing signs of overpumping in the 1990s and into this decade. Pumping at the Starkey wellfield in west Pasco, for instance, has been cut back from about 12 million to about 2.5 million gallons a day, Seeber said.

"We've had increases of about 5 feet in the aquifer at the Starkey wellfield as a result of changes in pumping," Seeber said.

One of Tampa Bay Water's more significant projects is construction of a 15.5 billion-gallon reservoir, completed in 2005. The reservoir has about 3 billion gallons in it "because we're using it," said Seeber, the former city manager of New Port Richey.

A desalination facility, plagued with delays and operational problems, now is producing about 20 million gallons of potable water a day, Seeber said.

Collecting surface water from rivers and treating it has produced about 120 million gallons a day, Seeber said.

Commissioner Ann Hildebrand, who serves on the Tampa Bay Water board, said the authority is ahead of schedule in reducing groundwater pumping, "and that's nothing short of awesome."

Commissioner Michael Cox said the authority "is a good example of governments working together."

Reporter Julia Ferrante can be reached at (813) 948-4220 or jferrante@tampatrib.com.

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