the sad record of the seawater desalination plant

We decided to build a Seawater Desalination Plant in late 1996.  Construction began in 2001, and was to be finished in 2003.  Between 2000 and 2005, everything related to the desalination plant was a comedy of errors, and the plant finally became fully operational by the end of 2007 – nearly six years behind its original schedule.

The initial project budget was $110m, but due to all the nonsense, it rose to $150m.

As recently as January, the utility said that by March it would be producing at full capacaty (25 million gallons per day or mgd).  Alas, the plant has had more problems:

… a leaking intake pipe required shutting down operations completely for about 24 hours. …mechanical problems limited the plant to producing only 14 million gallons a day.

and a $90,000 transformer blew out, limiting production to a maximum of 19 mgd for the next couple months.  Tampa Bay Water GM Gerald Seeber now says “Full capacity of 25 mgd will not be available until May.”

So, for $150 million, the Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Plant has thus far run at full capacity from December 2007 to March 2009 – a total of 16 months.