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Tarpon Poised to Design Desalination Plant

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By Mark  Schantz | The Suncoast News

Published: October 27, 2007

TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. - TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. - Local officials can almost taste that first glass of water that will pour from the city's planned reverse-osmosis water treatment plant.

The actual experience will not take place until 2010, but officials are poised to select the design and actual cost of the plant.

The water desalination facility will be on 10 acres north of the city, on the Anclote River near L and R Industrial Boulevard.

Paul Smith, public administration director, estimates the plant will cost about $45 million. Initially, it will produce 6.5 million gallons of potable water a day.

The plant will transform brackish water from wells into drinking water through the reverse-osmosis treatment process. Dunedin has had a similar R-O plant in operation for a number of years.

The plant will give Tarpon Springs drinking water independence and save hundreds of thousands of dollars, city officials say.

The city still is estimating how much it will cost to produce its own water, according to Smith. It could cost Tarpon $7.5 million a year by 2010 if it keeps buying its water from outside.

The city now receives about 80 percent of its drinking water from Tampa Bay Water through Pinellas County Utilities.

Tarpon wants control of its own water treatment and disinfectant methods.

Last year, voters overwhelmingly approved the city issuing revenue bonds to pay for the reverse-osmosis plant. It hopes to win grant funds to defray some of the cost, Smith said.

An earlier test-wells study found the water quality very good, he said.

If all permitting and plans work out, construction could begin in 2009 with the plant completed in about eight months, he said.

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