Tampa voters will decide on drinking reclaimed toilet water

Let the voters decide. That's what the city council wants to do with a controversial proposal to convert wastewater into drinking water to supplement the city's supply.

At a workshop on Tuesday, council members voted to put the question - proposed by Councilman Charlie Miranda - on the ballot in the 2010 election as a referendum. The next step is for city staff to prepare proposed ballot language, which would then be submitted to the county's supervisor of elections for certification.

Miranda's proposal calls for building a new treatment plant to purify the wastewater to drinkable quality. From there, it would be injected it into the ground for natural filtration before it flows into the Hillsborough River, the city's primary source of drinking water.

Such a move would require state and federal permits and cost tens of millions of dollars at a time when the city is struggling to meet operating expenses amid revenue declines.

The idea has been floated by Tampa officials in the past, but never got under way.

In the mid-1980s, Tampa spent more than $6 million on research for a similar proposal but backed away from it because of funding concerns and a lack of public support.

Supporters of the move point out that utilities in other states return treated wastewater to their drinking water supplies that well exceed state and federal water-quality standards.

Tampa gets most of its drinking water from the Hillsborough River, diverting its flow into a reservoir near the city's treatment plant. But several years of drought have caused the river levels to fluctuate - at times dropping to record lows - which has forced the city to spend tens of millions of dollars on bulk water and impose tough irrigation restrictions.

Likewise, the city has for years struggled to expand its distribution system to put more reclaimed water on lawns to offset its potable water use. Although plans are under way to expand it, the system currently serves only about 3,500 residents in South Tampa.

Both the city of Tampa and Hillsborough County are under pressure from the state environmental regulators to stop dumping treated wastewater into the waterways.

More than 55 million gallons of Tampa's reclaimed is dumped into the Bay every day.