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Mosaic Exits Reclaimed Water Project

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By MIKE SALINERO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 7, 2008

TAMPA - Mosaic Fertilizer has withdrawn from a nonprofit company that wants to pipe millions of gallons of wastewater daily from Tampa and Hillsborough County to customers in eastern Hillsborough and Polk County.

The remaining partners said the project should still be able to go ahead. Officials are trying to decrease the use of drinking water on lawns and limit the amount of nutrient-rich reclaimed water entering rivers and Tampa Bay.

Mosaic said it was leaving Water Partners Inc. because of concerns raised by local government agencies about the company's control over the $70 million pipeline project. In a letter Friday to Water Partners, Mosaic officials said the project is a good one, but the management structure creates problems.

"While we continue to believe the concept and project itself is a progressive solution to future water needs of our region, the structure and foundational issues of WPI require reconsideration and further review in light of concerns expressed by various county and other local boards," wrote Parker Keen, a member of Mosaic's land management division.

Both Tampa and the Southwest Florida Water Management District have objected to a private company wielding control over public resources. Tampa, whose treated wastewater is vital to the project, wants control over how the water is priced.

The water district is being asked to contribute $35 million to the first phase of the pipeline. Executive Director Dave Moore said the district must be assured the project is competitively bid and open to public review.

"Our concern, especially when you go into the capital part of that and you're talking about tens of millions of dollars, is that it be open and transparent and that the entities that build it are financially sound," Moore said.
Tampa City Attorney David Smith said the city has opposed having a private entity controlling the project from the beginning.

Besides Mosaic, the other partners in the project are Tampa Electric Co. and Hillsborough County. Each put in $300,000 for the preliminary design and engineering for the first phase of the project: a pipeline from Valrico to Mosaic's reservoir in western Polk County, then south to TECO's Polk Power Station.

Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at msalinero@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-8303.

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