Water Wars

Tricked you.

Probably thought this was going to be about the marathon “negotiations” concerning the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River system and the circles the states of Florida, Georgia and Alabama have danced for decades without approaching a solution.

No, this war is going on in the county and involves the city of Port St. Joe’s move to a new water plant and the resultant impacts.

To be clear, the city was going to have to do something about its water plant. The Northwest Florida Water Management District (NWFWMD) is trying to get coastal communities off the deep wells tapping the Floridan Aquifer and is all but mandating alternative sources.

In this area, we are fortunate to have abundant surface water sources, including the Econfina Creek which feeds Deer Point Lake and sates the thirsts in Bay County, as well as the Chipola River, considered a more abundant source, short- and long-term, than the Econfina.

The NWFWMD has assisted on funding for the canal that is fed by the Chipola and meanders down to Port St. Joe and for the new water plant.

The plant itself is a state-of-the-art facility – as it should be with a price tag over $21 million – and a marked improvement over the now crumbling building that passed for the old plant.

To gaze upon the two across the road from each other is to gaze upon the march of history.

But that is not to say there have not been issues.

The chemical balance has been a tricky proposition for staff at the plant though the acceptance testing currently underway should refine the treatment process.

The use of a rust inhibitor has caused, well, rust to loosen and become a small, but for consumers a significant, part of the water coming from taps, causing folks to blanch a bit at reddish hues and sometimes off-putting smells.

These are bumps to be expected with constructing and bringing on line such a facility and while the Florida Department of Environmental Protection has provided positive input regarding the progress that has been made, the record of the FDEP is not exactly one of solace for those concerned about their water.

All in all, however, the city had essentially no choice but to build a new plant. Many of the hurdles that have been encountered were to be expected and the city’s staff at the plant have done a wonderful job in being, for lack of a better term, very good customer service representatives at a difficult time while also laboring to the bring the plant fully and efficiently on line.

There have been other factors.

The city has undertaken this ambitious and complicated task of bringing a new water plant up from the ground at a time when the city and county are partnering to install new infrastructure throughout the south end of the county.

From Highland View to the Beaches to Beacon Hill to Overstreet to White City, new pipes for water and sewer are going in or have gone in, representing millions of dollars worth of infrastructure.

This has stretched focus, tempers, budgets and the partnership itself to the limits, nearly to the breaking point in some instances.

Now, the city has positioned itself to be a regional supplier of water, but a key stepping stone - a rate study - is long overdue.

The top complaint now being heard around the community is not so much about the smell or color of the water as it is the cost.

This is unnerving to many on several levels.

The economy, and therefore, pardon the phrase, liquid cash, is tight. Many in the county are on fixed incomes.

Secondly, city commissioners asked repeatedly at the time of the proposed building of the plant, to engineers, to the former mayor, to the lead city attorney at the time, how was this all to be paid?

There were assurances that then-current water users would not see much of an increase; that through grants, a deal on tap fees for WindMark Beach with The St. Joe Company and the like, the city was going to be sufficiently flush to build the new plant.

That proved incorrect.

Finally, people are seeing their water bills explode by 30 percent and more without knowing or understanding the justification.

And, as one commissioner offered recently, contending that the water bill could be a whole lot more is not a comforting reply.

The city needs to find the money and undertake a rate study on water as soon as possible.

The skyrocketing water rates are angering consumers, poisoning an already poisonous relationship with the county and opening the city and its elected officials to criticism that is likely undeserved.

While covering the State House in Tallahassee for several years, I observed first-hand the growing water wars going on between neighbors around Tampa and St. Petersburg spreading west to Orlando.

Given the resources of the region the possibilities of such spats seemed remote, but not any more.

By stepping into the future city officials, rightly or wrongly, have taken a bath in ill will and pointed questions due to the lack of a rate study to justify what is happening to water bills.

The sooner that situation is rectified the sooner attentions can be diverted to other pressing issues.

The last thing this county needs is its own version of a water war.