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Taking a plunge with toilet water

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 27, 2009

Leave it to Tampa Councilman Charlie Miranda to champion spiking the city's drinking water with wastewater.

Most politicians would not want to touch an issue likely to evoke either revulsion or ridicule.

But the plucky Miranda, an expert on water issues, recognizes if the city doesn't utilize the 55 million gallons of highly treated wastewater it now dumps into Tampa Bay each day, the city could end up losing this resource altogether.

Other agencies and some lawmakers have designs on Tampa's wastewater, which can be used for irrigation, industrial operations, wetland restoration or even, as Miranda stresses, for drinking water augmentation.

The city now uses some wastewater to provide lawn-irrigation water to some neighborhoods, but connecting the entire city could be cost prohibitive and, in any event, the city probably would never need to devote all its unused wastewater to watering.

Miranda persuaded the city council the other day to approve a plan to put a toilet-to-tap proposal before voters, though a lot of details will need to be worked out, including deciding when the vote should take place.

Miranda wants the issue to go before voters in the 2010 general election, which would attract more voters than the 2011 city election.

But city officials have much to nail down before they can provide voters the facts they need to know. Council shouldn't insist on a 2010 or even a 2011 vote, if it doesn't have sufficient answers.

The public's priority obviously will be safety.

But while there may be some initial resistance to putting "toilet water" in the tap, most citizens likely will come to see that isn't what really happens.

The wastewater would be thoroughly treated at the city's wastewater plant, and then put in the Hillsborough River, the aquifer or the Tampa Bypass Canal, before being treated again at the city's drinking water plant.

Orange County, Calif., and communities in Texas, Nevada and Virginia have added wastewater to drinking water supplies with no ill health effects.

Additional studies need to be done about the impact of pharmaceuticals that can persist in wastewater, but existing operations report no problems, since the water is thoroughly treated and diluted.

And, as Miranda points out, the water residents now drink hardly starts off pristine. It flows across cow pastures, yards, parking lots and streets in making its way to the river. Yet the drinking water plant renders it clean and safe.

The bigger issue probably will be cost. Miranda estimates expanding treatment facilities would cost about $200 million, but no one knows for sure. Miami-Dade is planning a $350 million facility that would produce 20 million gallons a day. Miranda projects Tampa would transform 23 million gallons of wastewater into potable water a day.

Mayor Pam Iorio worries about how a ballot issue would explain the expense, which could vary depending on whether the wastewater is pumped underground, into the reservoir or into the bypass canal.

There is little doubt the change would increase water rates. The city now relies chiefly on surface water, the cheapest source of water.

But the city could have used an extra 23 million gallons a day last spring, when the drought virtually halted the river flow, forcing it to impose a watering ban to ensure a sufficient potable supply. It had to buy more expensive water from Tampa Bay Water, the regional water supply utility.

Miranda's plan would not necessarily eliminate the possibility of sharing the wastewater with other counties. The city likely still would have some surplus.

But Tampa, by determining its needs and developing a wastewater-utilization strategy, would eliminate the possibility of legislators or some other government agency trying to take control.

The city is right to strive to put all its water sources to good use. But it needs to have a firm grasp of the facts before it goes to voters.

If the public's questions are all answered and the price is reasonable, voters weary of water rationing will quickly forget about the "yuck" factor and embrace Miranda's idea.

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