Desal plant violates dumping permit 3 times

Over the past four months, Tampa Bay Water's desalination plant has been hit with three notices of violations of its wastewater dumping permit by Hillsborough County officials. The most recent notice went out this week.

The $158-million plant in Apollo Beach uses membranes to filter the salt out of seawater taken from Tampa Bay and turn it into drinking water. The problem is, the membranes have to be cleaned periodically. Then the used cleaning solution, full of chloride, sodium and sulfate, is dumped into the sewer line.

To make sure the sewer plant doesn't get overwhelmed, Hillsborough County put a limit on how much of that stuff can be flushed into its sewer line, and how fast. But in August, November and January, the plant flushed waste down the line that exceeded those limits, county officials say.

Although the county has warned Tampa Bay Water that repeated violations could lead to fines, so far it has not taken that step. Tampa Bay Water operations and facilities manager Chuck Carden said today that the plant's operator, American Water Pridesa, is working to fix the problem before it happens a fourth time. He blamed operator error and a manual flushing system.

- Craig Pittman, Times staff writer

Comments

[Jeb]

It's only a matter of time before something happens at the desal plant and totally compromises every living creature in the Bay.

[Justin E]

What good is a fine going to do anyway? They've probably figured that even if they get fined each and every time it would still be less expensive than if they followed the regulations (I would imagine because those substances have to be stored, insured, etc.).

Way to go Tampa Bay! Once again allowing money hungry outsiders to muck up all your natural beauty!