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Tampa Bay Water OKs 5-year program to repair reservoir

News Channel 8 photo by GORDON DEMPSEY

The C.W. 'Bill' Young Regional Reservoir cost $147 million to build. Repairs could top $125 million.

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By NEIL JOHNSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 15, 2009

Updated: 06/15/2009 03:10 pm

CLEARWATER - Lamenting that they had no choice, the board of Tampa Bay Water agreed today to fix its cracked, flawed reservoir in southern Hillsborough County.

Fixing the 15 billion gallon reservoir that is the lynchpin for water supplies in the dry season will take five years, possibly cost $125 million and likely add to residents' water bills.

The board of Tampa Bay Water agreed with the recommendations of its staff on steps to fix the cracked C.W. "Bill" Young Regional Reservoir and the selection process for a company to do the work.

Selecting the design and the contractor is expected to take three years. The repairs would take another two years once work begins, putting the reservoir out of service for two dry seasons.

A rough estimate of the cost is $125 million, but the utility board members won't know the true price until they open bids in three years.

The reservoir cost $147 million to build. In addition, the utility spent $4.1 million filling the cracks with grout and searching for their cause. This year, $325,000 is budgeted for filling the cracks but the cost may reach $1 million.

Tampa Bay Water has filed a federal lawsuit against the engineering company that designed the reservoir, the contractor and the firm that supervised construction to pay for the repairs.

Any money recovered from the suit will go to defray the repair cost. Residents in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Tampa, St. Petersburg and New Port Richey would make up the balance through increases in their water bills.

If Tampa Bay Water has to pay $125 million for the repairs, water bills would go up by about 13 cents for every 1,000 gallons. For a household using 10,000 gallons a month, the increase would be $1.30 monthly.

Those increases would not show up on to water bills until 2011 when the board hires someone to make the repairs.

Cracks cover about 40 percent of the reservoir side and surface. They will spread if nothing is done, said Helen Bennett, a vice president for the engineering company Black and Veatch, which Tampa Bay Water hiredto unearth the cause for the cracks.

Cracks in the soil cement, a mixture of dirt and cement that covers the sides and bottom of the reservoir, were first noticed in 2006, and utility officials said then they were normal, expected and only cosmetic. But the cracks kept spreading and enlarging and Tampa Bay Water asked engineers to look into the cause.

The soil cement is intended to prevent erosion of a wedge of soil covering a membrane that holds water inside the reservoir.

After at least two years of investigation, engineers determined that the wedge of soil is saturated. The soil layer does not drain as quickly as the reservoir when water is drawn out. That puts pressure on the soil cement and causes the cracks, Bennett said.

The problem confined to two areas of the reservoir will grow.

"It's just a matter of time before you have to repair all the areas," she said.

The reservoir is sound and is not in danger of leaking, said Gerald Seeber, Tampa Bay Water's general manager.

Last summer, the utility couldn't fill the reservoir to its capacity of 15 billion gallons because of the cracks, and it went dry at the end of March, eliminating a source that provides the Tampa Bay with 40 percent of its water during the dry spring months.

In May, workers finished temporary repairs of the cracks, and Tampa Bay Water officials say the reservoir can be filled this summer if there is enough rainfall. Last week, the state agreed to let Tampa Bay Water fill the reservoir to capacity this summer.

The utility will continue to put grout into new cracks that form. Otherwise the state would not allow the reservoir to be filled. If left alone, the cracks would eventually endanger the membrane that holds in the water.

Utility managers did not relish the prospect of spending the money but agreed it was necessary.

"I'm terribly disappointed in how this occurred," said Hillsborough County Commissioner Mark Sharpe, chairman of the Tampa Bay Water board. "But we've got to get this right."

Pinellas County Commissioner Kathy Seel did not like the prospect of increasing water bills for residents.

"I feel bad for them and wish we did not have to do it. I don't think we have any choice but to fix it," she said after the meeting.

Repairs will take so long because Seeber's recommendation outlines a lengthy process to select a company to design a solution, along with an independent review of the proposed solution.

That process is expected to take as long as three years.

The recommendation envisions three possible solutions:

• To add a drainage system to the layer of dirt between the soil cement and membrane;

• To remove the dirt and place a new soil cement layer atop the membrane;

• To add more soil cement to weigh down the existing soil cement covering.

When full, the reservoir can provide 66 million gallons a day to the region's water supply.

Reporter Neil Johnson can be reached at (813) 259-7731.

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