Tampa Water long term master water plan update

1:14:15We've got a presentation scheduled for time certain for eleven, so we'll do that now. Tampe Water, long term master water plan update.

1:14:36Welcome chap.

1:14:44All righty, there's it's up there and I want to say good morning first of all and thank you for inviting me today to give you an uh an update on our agency's activities. My name is Chuck Carden and I'm the general manager of Tampa Bay Water, which is your regional water supply wholesaler. Commissioner Oakley and Commissioner Weightman currently sit on our Tampa Bay Water Board, and Commissioner Oakley is our current chair. Uh Commissioner Starkey and Mariano uh have previously represented

1:15:15the county and the board in the past. So thank you very much for everybody. And I think Commissioner Bradford, he's on the line. He might be the he'd be the next. Uh four out of five.

1:15:27We were created 25 years ago by you and uh five other governments to serve uh building innovative alternative water supply sources to meet the uh region's needs. We have the unequivocal obligation to supply all the water our mum member governments need. And the members include your county, Hillsborough, Pinellas County, the cities of Newport Ritchie, St. Petersburg, and the City of Tampa. Tampa's membership is unique

1:15:57in that they can self-supply up to 82 million gallons a day of drinking water from their existing surface water treatment plant. Any water above the eighty-two is supplied by Tampa Bay Water. One of our main goals when we were created was to reduce groundwater pumping so the environment could recover. And we've done that.

1:16:21Here is how we are currently meeting your drinking water needs. We have a very diverse and flexible water supply system that uses groundwater, river water, and desalinated seawater. Prior to nineteen ninety-eight, we were a hundred percent groundwater reliant. Now the ratio is 60% groundwater and 40% surface and desalinated seawater. Our current budgeted supply for this uh fiscal year is 198 million gallons a day, and that does

1:16:51not include the eighty-two million gallons a day that uh Tampa supplies itself. Our current wholesale rate that we charge all the members is uh about $2.60 per thousand gallons.

1:17:05And as I'm very uh sure you're aware, uh we continue to grow as a region. Hillsburg County and Pasco County are the fastest growing areas for us. Pasco uh is eighteen percent of our supply demands. Uh just to give you a reference, I used to um work uh for Pasco County when I first started out in 1987 and um It's doubled. Pasco's take is doubled since uh my br my memory from how

1:17:36much water you take. We are also currently working to develop additional pumping and transmission pipeline capacity. to help increase the supply to the southern Hillsburg County area. We are working with uh Hillsburg County on a new Uh booster pump station to increase uh system capacity by at least five million gallons a day. We're also working to put in a new pipeline system to deliver up to an additional 65 million gallons a day. And we are working

1:18:06on a new supply well to a little over uh 2.3 million gallons a day.

1:18:13It is important that we try to save all we can to offset the need and the cost to build new water supplies. We have an incentive-based rebate program called Tampa Bay Waterwise. Our goal in this rebate program is to save up to four million gallons a day by the year 2030. by using rebates for uh residential toilets and irrigation technologies such as soil moisture sensors. Commercial fixtures such as spray valves, urinals, toilets, and

1:18:43cooling towers And uh just to give you some numbers, the program has issued over 4800 rebates. And Pasco County has issued nine hundred and twenty-four of them. Which is a savings of uh over twenty-seven thousand gallons or twelve percent of the total amount saved to date.

1:19:02But the demand management isn't enough by itself. We also need to add uh new water supplies to meet your needs into the future. And this chart shows our current planning horizon. The gray line is the member government demands, and the red line represents the trigger. uh for us to expand the system. Right now we are expanding our existing surface water treatment plant to meet the demands in the 2028 timeframe, and that's that first step up you see on the red line. The

1:19:33next water supply is anticipated to be needed by the year 2033, and we estimate that we will need an additional 10 to 20 million gallons a day at that time.

1:19:45Our planning process starts with uh what we call the long-term master water plan. And it looks at demands, growth, and a variety of supply options. We update the plan every five years and we look out 20 years as our planning horizon. Uh options are analyzed and screened down to recommended shortlisted projects that go into what we call the feasibility phase. Once feasibility studies are completed, the board will then be asked to vote on projects to move into the design and construction

1:20:16phase to meet the future demands. Tampa Bay Water is currently in the first step of the process for the 2033 supply options, and we are down to a short list of projects that we are recommending for further feasibility studies. And here are uh the seven project concepts that are on the short list to be recommended. uh as part of the uh current long-term master water plan. These projects represent a diversity in locations, sources of supply, and

1:20:46they have differing yields and uh initial projected cost. You will see there are options that range from anywhere from the additional surface water to expanding the D Sell plant. to also exploring the use of additional groundwater through new well fields or through the existing consolidated permit. Option G is a project that uses the benefit of credits from the injection of treated reclaim water. Hillsburg County's project is called the Sharp Project. They put

1:21:16water in deep wells on the coast to stop saltwater intrusion. And it does increase the pressure and increases the water levels inland, which may allow us to take the water.

1:21:33These are the shortlisted projects that we are recommending our board move into the feasibility phase and we are planning to bring that to the board in November for a vote.

1:21:46In addition to the feasibility studies, we are also evaluating potential potable reuse projects. for future consideration and we call those development alternatives. Uh these projects require longer uh studies, uh additional investigation. And they need time for regulations to even be implemented at this time. Right now we know that the city of Tampa, Hillsbrook County, and Pinellas County have excess reclaim water that could be used for either direct or indirect reuse

1:22:16projects in the future.

1:22:20The water we provide to our member governments meets all federal, state, and local standards. We recently completed a water quality study that looks at removing total organic carbon, which will provide uh the utilities a greater operational control. The study revealed that the treatment for total organic carbon removal can also be used for other contaminants of emergent concern. PER and polyfluoroal alcohol substances, or PFOS for short, has

1:22:50been in the news nationally and I do want to spend a few minutes uh on the subject. Uh PFOS compounds do not originate in water supplies. They are man-made substances that enter the environment, which includes drinking water sources, once the products are discarded. Tampa Bay Water and the member governments, including Pasco County, began testing for PFOS as part of the National Environmental Protection Agency study. It's called the UCMR5 testing. Uh this uh is

1:23:21for uh unregulated PFOS uh compounds. There's 29 of them that we have to test for. Uh the study calls for 12 months of quarterly testing. Uh and uh all our members are doing that along with Tampa Bay Water at the same time. The first sampling event uh was completed and uh the regional system uh there was two locations that were reported uh with the one compound of PFOS just slightly over the proposed limit uh of four parts per trillion. All

1:23:51of the other sample locations were less than the EPA's proposed limit or not detected. And once we have the final EPA's final regulations, we expect those to be coming out in early 2024. We will have some data from our EPA sampling study, and we will determine any treatment recommendations to our board of directors if need be.

1:24:16And with that, I'd like to thank you for all allowing me the opportunity to present today. But before I finish, I I did want to bring up uh something that we declared last week. It's called the Stage One Water Shortage Mitigation Declaration. It was in the uh local news. Uh you might have uh caught some of that. But uh what it is is uh it's a water shortage mitigation plan that Tampa Bay Water has uh that looks at rainfall stream flow and our reservoir storage and they are used as indicators of the

1:24:47health of the region's water supplies. The plan has four stages, and uh last week we entered into stage one of the plan due to the uh The average rainfall on a twelve month rolling average being at eight point three uh deficit. So anytime it goes below uh five inches of the deficit that would trigger the phase one uh notification. And what the phase one notification is, is to allow for proactive measures to increase awareness

1:25:17about conserving water during these drier than normal conditions. And so uh with that I'd be happy to answer any questions.

1:25:25Yeah, I could. Um thank you, Chuck. That's a great report. Um One thing I'd like to tell the board about and and our staff here that's with us um The D cell is There's is changing in a in a sense because of Tico's plant. The operation may change with a plant that provides water for us to desell. And in the past that's been like three percent of our total water supply is what the D cell Provides

1:25:56us. And it came up the other day when we did a tour there last week. that the fact of it is that we could use brackish water wells Which were like thousand foot deep or what to feed the D cell plant.

1:26:13But And still it'd be cleaner water. And you c we could run the plant. Many more days than we do today. Which would provide more water in that. And it's provided at a lesser cost than we're having right now. So That in itself is really an eye-opener for me for the fact that we could have a lot more D cell water that can be cleaned. and provided for our our citizens. I think that's that's one of

1:26:43the avenues we're looking at and it it's really a a good one. It's a eye opener when you think about it. 'Cause that water come right out of the ground and it'd be clean and a lot of debris and all we face that the water we get now to decell. A lot of trash in it we have to clean out before it comes in. But This would be a lot better way and a way we could Run the plan. Maybe three hundred days a a year rather than I don't know, it's about six months or so like that, but it's It's a shortage. It produce

1:27:13it can produce twenty five million a day. Right. This other way it might end up producing a lot more than that.

1:27:21Exciting stuff. Mr. Starkey.

1:27:25Well, I enjoyed my time on Tampa Bay Water. Um, and uh it's great to see you here today, Chuck. And I um I know we were all a little frustrated how long it took to get that South Hillsboro County deal going. Um but that's underway and you're under great leadership with our commissioner over here who I know is very excited to be chairing Tampa Bay Water. So um um I did wanna give well Uh off the record when we're not on camera, I'm gonna I'm

1:27:55gonna give you an office. You need to go call them uh and tell them to fix their toilets. Need to get on the the low flow toilets. Uh but I won't embarrass them online TV. Um but welcome and uh thanks for all the good work you do. And thank you very much as well for working with us as we um go to put in our Um Orange Belt Trail across the county, which we think will be an amazing trail for the community. I know it's g uh going a little bit through the

1:28:25uh the wall field there and We appreciate the cooperation working together to get that through.

1:28:31Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Yeah. Commissioner Weightman.

1:28:34Thank you, Chairman Mariano. And uh yeah, it's pretty neat to have uh Commissioner Oakley be our chairman on Monday mornings. And uh good meeting and it's it's interesting interesting subject matter always. Mr Carden. We uh last meeting you touched on PFOS and and the uh markers and there's not really Uh real form guidelines from from the Fed and from time to time we have folks that come up in our board meetings and and and ask about POS. Would you explain

1:29:04kind of how we're currently the the recommendations behind PFOS, what's good, what's bad, like you did at our last Tampa Bay water meeting. I think that's that'd be interesting info for folk to know and then when we talk to our federal delegation, um Just some good talking points for them what we might be able to advocate for to protect our our water and our coast.

1:29:28Yes, sir. Uh thank you. Uh you know, as I said err briefly earlier, the PFOS they're man made compounds. They've been around since the uh Probably the fifties, sixties, uh and they're in a lot of uh products that we use today. Um frying pans and raincoats and uh fire fighting foam. Uh but they did get in into the environment and they are called for their nickname is forever chemicals. They don't go away uh on their own. And so uh treatment is necessary. Um they have been on EPA's

1:29:59uh list of unregulated uh compounds, which they give you um guidelines. There's no regul there is no regulation for PFOS currently. Uh they used to be uh uh A number of 70 parts per trillion was the was the guideline for years. Uh but but uh EPA's been uh always sampling every five years. They ask for sampling. Um they're they're looking at making it uh the regulated compounds starting next year. Uh they d haven't settled completely on a number, but right now they're looking at four parts

1:30:29per trillion. uh to to treat it. Um so what that would do is uh if if you go over four parts you would have to find a treatment uh to take care of it. Currently that is granular activated carbon or ion exchange or even reverse osmosis to to get it underneath the four parts per trillion. Uh but one of the things that's going on also is uh lawsuits to the to the manufacturers who have who put it there to help offset the cost if a utility

1:30:59needs to to spend a lot of money for the treatment of it. Um that would be something that we're looking at. But you know, with the numbers we've seen, we've only taken one quarterly sample. It was in July. Our next sampling starts next week actually, October 16th, the second quarter. We have uh worked with all of the six member governments uh to coordinate with them a communications plan so that we're all messaging and saying the same things. We're also getting out ahead of it. We're not running from it. We want to talk to the public, we want to help them understand

1:31:29what it is, we're talking to the media. Um, but the the results were um like you said, we sampled 15 spots in the Tampa Bay distribution. There was two right at four, and the rest were un undetectable or below the four. The member governments each did their own testing and they found similar results. There was not uh any any numbers that were above or alarming over over what the uh the concentrations they're talking about. So In uh retrospect, we're in pretty good shape with that. Uh

1:32:00uh the whole nation is doing this as we speak. They we started in 2023 and all the testing has to be done by 2025. You do four quarterly samples and they're averaged together. So we don't know exactly what seasonality we'll do. We did the summer and now we're about to do October, which I was gonna say fall, but in Florida, uh I think we're we we don't have much of a distinction between fall and summer. Uh so we will um We get the results and then we will make recommendations, if any, to our board whether we

1:32:30need to do some treatment for it, uh depending on the results of it.

1:32:36Did I ask you a question on the PFS? Um does uh a um RO system clean that? Yes ma'am, it

1:32:43would it would remove that.

1:32:48An area That is not regulated it's not it's not one of our service delivery areas. It's that sunshine Utility that was I don't remember the name of the company before they be they named themselves Sunshine. I think they're out of Canada. Um and they had s have seven wells in that area. It's in the Darlington community. And uh I need to check if Metropolitan Ministries is in with them. And They had seven contaminated wells. Way

1:33:19over the limit, and they couldn't close them all. Um because then they couldn't deliver any water. So I asked I asked if they would let us come in and take over and they said no. Um and they sent a letter to all the residents. No one complained. I'm not I'm not sure I think there may be a lot of rentals there. But Anskill's is in that area and we were very concerned because we had we by law had to put water fountains in. But I didn't want anyone drinking out of those water fountains. So we're gonna get

1:33:49a um They said we were gonna get an R O system in there. Um but I'm I'm concerned about this, especially in that area where the levels are really high.

1:34:00I was gonna I was gonna talk about that a little bit, but I think maybe we should especially with the M skills right there, we should bring bring that. Maybe that's what we need to send to the PSC to let them know this is what's going on and find out what the PSC is gonna do about it.

1:34:12It seems like the that when there is a An availability to to be able to deliver um uncontaminated water to the level that they have. That there should be a mechanism where we can go in and Help those people. But they would not let us come come in.

1:34:34should be a knockdown as far as their rate of return, if nothing else.

1:34:36And I'm not sure, you know, if someone sells the house and the new family moves in. They didn't get that letter from four or five years ago or four years ago. I brought it to the attention at Tampa Bay Water. Um and the attorney when we were uh discussing the litigation Um in but anyway it's it's probably

1:34:56Chuck, do you know if they're um they're governed by the state agencies, so

1:35:01It'd be under the same rules there the the sample and test. If they cannot get under w you know, when they do propose that as law, th those regulations, if they can't get under the uh you know, they would be breaking the law. They uh have three years, you know, what we're hearing is that when EPA does set the limits and cause uh it to be law, If you're over you have three years to get the treatment and get get it fixed. So if they don't do that they would be breaking the law and they could come in and shut this federal

1:35:31government could shut them down.

1:35:32Looks like if it was some contaminant you were putting in water that you're serving the people that you'd have something some kind of action quicker than that because for three years people could be getting something that would harm them. So Something gonna happen.

1:35:47So Somebody need to get on right away. Uh Commissioner Bradford.

1:35:52Yeah, uh Just uh I'll be brief, but I did wanna Well Commissioner Oakley that uh I'll be looking to him for guidance and mentoring on water issues. Uh I am just uh educating those areas. Chuck, you're doing a great job. Keep up the work. I know everybody, every board member supports you and your organization. And finally

1:36:19When I look to you, uh Commissioner Starkey It's about trails. and she will keep me educated on trails. loud and forcefully. Yeah. Yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

1:36:33Thank you. Um You know, Commissioner Oakley, I'm glad you brought up about the D sale planners I had heard from a previous meeting we're in and I think it's great that we're looking for a a cheaper way to produce it 'cause the one reason we only rented at like twenty five percent capacity or even five percent capacity was because it was so expensive. So it's a great asset to have when we need it, but if there's a way to make it work better and cheaper, uh with this new new system, uh new source, then Fantastic.

1:37:00There's people studying that right now. Yeah. And they they've told me that it would be cheaper than the operation we already have. So

1:37:07that's very exciting. Delighted

1:37:08delight to hear that. That's very exciting to hear that.

1:37:10So Commissioner Starkey you actually touched on something that you didn't want to mention, but I'm gonna go a little further with it. Um I was in a hotel This past year down in Penellas County. And it had been renovated, but it had old toilets in it. Um

1:37:26I was at my mother's house yesterday, I just noticed she's got a high flow toilet. She's with a condo association. Her water bill is paid by the condo association. For huh no. And I'll I'll say probably all the other members of that association and others all around the region. There's no incentive for them to go get a new toilet. Other than for the goodwill of the heart. There's also the opportunity where associations right now are paying probably higher than ever insurance costs. Yeah, trash cost, pickup cost, et cetera.

1:37:56So they're getting squeezed tremendously. I think we should look at doing something between condominiums, all home growers associations that supply in bulk. Let's get with Swift Mud, let's get with Tempe Water. uh the Pasco County utilities and let's go put in the center plan out there and maybe what we need to do is not do it one by one. But let's go do a mall.

1:38:17But Jack, that um the um woman that was here from Swiftland? She was talking about that program. I can't remember what it's called. where you you can go in and get massive savings.

1:38:29Whatever it may be, so so this I mean I'm I'm I'm gl and I knew you were coming here at some point, so I'm glad it's here today to talk about it. But whatever it may be, we need to get Swiftman. Tampay Water, Pasco County Utilities, Penellas and Hillsborough all together, and let's go look at these big projects that are out there.

1:38:56So before I would say that I want to see these other projects get done, though the D cell, I want to see that keep on rolling. I want to see this looked at real closely again. Every single business Should have it in there. And if we're doing inspections on companies, if they're gonna do business here in the county, they should be on low flow. We should be conserving. If they're a hotel HOA, let's make it easy for the HOAs. to get in there. Anything that's bulk water, every single Uh Toilet. Should be should be looked

1:39:27at as

1:39:27well as

1:39:27faucets.

1:39:28I I appreciate those comments. You know, I had a slide for our Water Weiss program. Uh we have a program manager, Amanda Brown. Um that is specifically what they're targeting right now, what you just talked about. That's a lot of uh uh potential. with the apartments and and going in there in bulk. And so uh she will be getting with Pasco and the Swiftman. We'll see what else we can do. But I know she's got several going on That is where we need to focus on uh with the rebates. They are out there. We just need to get

1:39:58the word out and talk to Folks.

1:40:02And and again, you

1:40:03know,

1:40:03going to Home Depot and I had done one bit a bit ago. Your your b your flyer that's on the toilets that that do qualify with Swift Mut, et cetera, is great. It it's it stimulates, okay, let's go do this. We can save money on on the price of the toilet. You still have the expense of the of the uh plumbing to be done from the plumber, uh unless you're gonna do it yourself, or even the extra price of the toilet to get what you want compared to what what's You know, with the price of the rebate. So the opportunity for that for the people I I love the way you've got that set up. And I'm it's

1:40:33an improvement from what we had before as well. I know we just can do better, but we've got to look at those mass miss situations, the hotels, apartments, and the uh HOAs that just get it in bulk. Because if people don't Have an incentive to go do it, it's not gonna happen. And there's got to be them all over the place where we can make these changes. And I think what we need to do is set up Not only just with the cost of the toilet itself, let's go set up a bulk program through Home Depot, Lowe's, whatever, all the plumbing as plumbers as well. Let's get them in. So

1:41:03if you're gonna go replace an apartment complex, get them all to bid on it. Get them all out there. It's gotta be great work, local work. Which which I they'd all wanna see. So I would love to see this done if we need a workshop. Let's go bring a workshop. But it's not just Pasco either. We need the other counties with us.

1:41:20I agree. Okay.

1:41:23I'll let the chairman run with that down in Tampa Water.

1:41:26Yes.

1:41:27Okay. All right. Anything else? All right. No. Well, thank you very much for coming on.

1:41:31Appreciate it. Thank

1:41:31you

1:41:31for checking

1:41:32it.

1:41:32We did turn twenty-five. I didn't mention that so much, but we did turn twenty-five this year. Oh yeah. So Mr. Carbelli has his Tam Bay Water twenty-fifth anniversary uh cup mug. So um, you know, that picture of the the recovery that I showed, that's why we were put together 25 years ago. So that's pictures like that.

1:41:51In my ordinary business today, I've got a report on on the tour and the 25 years. So excellent. Excellent.

1:41:57Chuck, I I'm sorry I didn't make it to the uh event in Tampa. I thought I was going out of town that very

1:42:03nice.

1:42:03But um is that film? the uh or the presentation that was that um put together is that available for

1:42:11it will it will be uh Michelle's right here but I know what we're trying to have it run on PBS W E D U for the month of November and so we're kind of waiting on that to get launched and then that will be available to everybody uh to download it and uh it's an awesome awesome video of how we got how I got

1:42:35Twenty five years ago. This was a monumental task for these three counties to get together to take care of a problem that was That's been very good for Pasco County. And to to keep it running on with your leadership, with the the whole region's leadership. It's a model for the nation. So thanks for the great work you guys are all doing down there. I appreciate it. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you.