Monday morning, the board of Tampa Bay Water voted to spend $1 million for a consultant to help the regional wholesale utility select the firm that will get the job of fixing the many cracks that have developed in its 15-billion-gallon C.W. Bill Young Reservoir. Fixing this crack problem at the reservoir, which is less than five years old, is going to cost almost as much as the $146 million it cost to build it. When you're throwing around that kind of dough, what's another million tacked onto the bottom line? ...more

October 21, 2009

On Monday, the governing board of Tampa Bay used one hand to hold its collective nose and plunged the other into the pockets of the people in Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties who consume the water the regional wholesale utility produces. Then the board voted to spend an estimated $125 million over the next five years to repair the many cracks that have developed in the utility's 15-billion-gallon C.W. Bill Young Reservoir. ...more

June 23, 2009

$147 million Construction cost for the C.W. Bill Young Reservoir $500,000 Annual cost to repair cracks in the reservoir since 2007 ...more

June 5, 2009

I have to agree with all the restrictions being placed on Tampa and Hillsborough residents in regards to watering their lawns. ...more

April 5, 2009

Raise Water Rates Faced with water shortages, my town, Cape May, N.J., a shore resort, doubles the water rate charge from April through September, the high time of the year for tourism. It works. ...more

March 30, 2009

The days of handholding are over. Pasco County will no longer give violators of its watering restrictions second chances. ...more

March 25, 2009

As the reservoir level continues to drop, Tampa Bay Water, the agency responsible for making sure Tampa Bay has clean, safe water plans to transfer $15 million from its Rate Stablization Reserve, a rainy day account, to cover costs and pay for water. ...more

February 16, 2009

The year 2009 has dawned. In the nation's capital, Barack Obama and Congress will soon begin trying to pull the nation out of a severe recession. We just hope they don't do anything to delay the recovery that would happen on its own, absent major interference from the political sector. In Tallahassee, state lawmakers will soon tackle a $2.3 billion budget shortfall. Here's hoping they don't try to solve that problem with taxes that invariably fail to raise the amounts of revenue their supporters claim. ...more

January 3, 2009

Recently the Tampa Bay Water (TBW) board voted to initiate litigation against HDR and others regarding an issue with the C.W. (Bill) Young Reservoir. Although we certainly understand the concerns about the cracking in the soil cement, we believe proceeding with litigation at this time is not the best course of action, particularly in light of the following: ...more

December 27, 2008

A water shortage might mean more citations for Pasco County residents who ignore lawn watering restrictions. As of Tuesday, 316 citations have been written since Nov. 14, according to Jeffrey D. Harris, an environmental biologist with Pasco County Utilities Services. ...more

December 27, 2008