“ This is a very big step for Tampa Bay Water,” the utility’s general manager, Gerald Seeber, told the agency's board members on Monday.
The Apollo Beach desalination plant that opened with serious setbacks in 2003 has finally passed some important hurdles. At the Tampa Bay Water meeting yesterday, the board commended the plant on meeting certain production requirements that will allow it to receive $21 million plus $10 million in interest from the Southwest Florida Management District, better known as Swiftmud.
Board officials were pleased that some of the interest money could go to pay off the short-term debt the utility had accrued with the initial construction of the plant.
Swiftmud had agreed to pay $85 million to help cover some of the capital costs for the alternative water supply. It would be paid out in increments only if the plant passed the four performance milestones, as set forth by the state agency, by December 2010.
When the plant first opened, it was the nation’s largest desal facility and was designed to generate 25 million gallons of water per day. However, there were serious delays in the plant’s freshwater production. Costing more than $150 million and built $40 million over budget, the plant was closed shortly after opening due to costly repairs and bankrupt contractors. The desalination plant did not re-open until January 2008. Since then, it has been working on meeting the benchmarks and has produced more than 18 billion gallons of freshwater.
This article appears in Feb 10-16, 2010.