Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Craig Pittman notes that Tampa Bay Water has had a couple of problems with their big-ticket items:

Over the past decade, Tampa Bay Water has built three big, expensive facilities to slake the thirst of a growing region — only to see all three run into problems:

• It’s desalination plant was years late and millions over budget. Even now, the plant has trouble running at full capacity.
• Its surface-water treatment plant also failed to open on time, then had trouble with its filters. It was recently shut down when river levels fell too low to skim any more water from them.
• Then there’s the reservoir. The cracks aren’t deep enough to breach the walls and let all the water out. But fixing them is likely to cost about as much as building it in the first place.

You might remember that we sort of put that together back in March, highlighting the sad record of the bill young reservoir the day after we choronicled the sad record of the seawater desalination plant.

In April, we again asked why are we (and our leaders) paying for stuff that doesn’t work properly?

I’ve noticed that we can’t really build bridges very well, that sewer pipes aren’t working as they should, and that our drought-resistant assets are not very helpful during this current drought.  Yet we keep them all in business.

Ronda Storms suggests it’s because the utility board is run by politicians instead of folks knowledgeable about water and engineering.  But two of Tampa Bay Water’s former chairmen – former County Commissioner Ed Turanchik, and former St. Petersburg Mayor David Fischer – say that the board is the right way to go.

In either case, Pasco County Commissioner Ann Hildebrand nails it:  “the board must figure out a better way to do its job.”  We’re glad she feels that way, since she is listed as Vice Chair for TBW.  Here are all the board members that need to quit screwing around, quit spending more money, and get tough on those who are responsible:

• Chairman – Hillsborough County Commissioner Mark Sharpe
• Vice Chairman – Pasco County Commissioner Ann Hildebrand
• Hillsborough County Commissioner Al Higginbotham
• New Port Richey Mayor Scott McPherson
• Pasco County Commissioner Ted Schrader
• Pinellas County Commissioner Susan Latvala
• Pinellas County Commissioner Karen Seel
• St. Petersburg Councilman James Bennett
• Tampa Councilman Charlie Miranda

Call your representatives, and tell them to hold someone other than taxpayers responsible.