At its August 16 meeting, the Southwest Florida Water Management District’s Hillsborough River Basin Board adopted a fiscal year 2006 (FY2006) millage rate of 0.285 mill, which is the same as the current fiscal year.
The budget for FY2006 is $15,875,555, which represents an increase of $4,058,230 over the approved FY2005 budget. The increase in the budget is primarily due to an increase in property values and revenue from the state’s newly created Water Protection and Sustainability Program for alternative water supply projects and surface water restoration projects. FY2006 will run from Oct. 1, 2005, through Sept. 30, 2006.
For the owner of a $125,000 home with a $25,000 homestead exemption, the FY 2006 Basin Board tax would be $28.50, or about $2.38 per month.
The Hillsborough River Basin Board’s FY2006 budget includes funding for Cooperative Funding projects. These projects are proposed by local governments, and are usually equally funded by the Basin Board and the local cooperator. One of the Hillsborough River Basin Board’s Cooperative Funding projects is the Duck Pond Drainage Improvements project in Hillsborough County.
This project, which is being funded by the basin board, the county and the City of Tampa, will reduce flooding in the Fowler Avenue area. The area experienced severe flooding after Hurricane Frances due to a combination of heavy rainfall, culvert blockage, and undersized conduits downstream. In the past, widespread flooding also occurred in this area during extreme rainfall events.
The project will involve construction both inside and outside Tampa’s city limits. Project elements within Hillsborough County include installing a pump station at the Duck Pond East outfall and a 72-inch reinforced concrete pipe to connect Duck Pond East and West. Another project element within the county includes creating a 4-acre detention pond south of E. 122nd Avenue and N. 15th Street to reduce the volume of floodwaters and provide some water quality treatment. Project elements within the City of Tampa include replacing the 36-inch reinforced concrete pipes under the rail line south of Fowler and Pine Court with larger concrete box culverts. Another project element within the city includes building a pump station at Donut Pond and installing a 48-inch one-way outfall at Lake Poinsettia.
The county and the city are both working on the project design and in securing an interlocal agreement, which will also include the Florida Department of Transportation.
The total cost of this multi-year, multi-governmental project is $8.6 million. The Hillsborough River Basin Board committed $1,108,270 to the project in FY2006, including $300,000 from the State’s Water Protection and Sustainability Program for surface water restoration. Funding during future fiscal years is contingent upon Basin Board approval.
Another one of the Hillsborough River Basin Board’s Cooperative Funding projects is the Hillsborough River Watershed Education program.
A watershed is an area of land that water flows across as it moves toward a common body of water, such as a stream, river, lake or coast. A watershed is where people live, work and play.
This project, which is being funded by the basin board and the Tampa Mayor’s Beautification Program, will develop a watershed education program that focuses on the Hillsborough River Watershed and how residents can protect it.
The Hillsborough River watershed includes the largest metropolitan area in the District. The river begins in the Green Swamp and makes its way through northeastern Hillsborough County, the suburbs of New Tampa, and Tampa.
The watershed education program may include distribution of materials, web-based messaging, support for existing educational programs, community leadership training, a teacher’s resource guide and coordination of community volunteers.
The cost of this project is $63,360. The Hillsborough River Basin Board committed $30,000 to the project.
The Basin Board’s budget also includes $4,885,798 for Water Supply and Resource Development. Water Supply and Resource Development funds projects that develop additional new sustainable water supplies.
One of the Water Supply and Resource Development projects in the budget is the Tampa Bay Regional Reclaimed Water and Downstream Augmentation Project.
This project is the result of a partnership between the District, the City of Tampa, Hillsborough County, Pasco County and Tampa Bay Water. It will ultimately reduce the use of traditional water supplies for irrigation and other purposes, increase the beneficial use of wet-weather reclaimed water flows, rather than
continue the practice of discharging them to tide or deep wells, and help to restore the natural systems in the area. The partnership will make available 26 mgd of alternative water supplies. In addition, the project will store surplus wet-weather reclaimed water flows for use during dry parts of the year when demand is high, and may use surplus reclaimed water for groundwater recharge and natural system restoration. The wet-weather component of the project is expected to provide an additional 8 mgd of water resource benefit, allowing the project to provide the region with 34 mgd of alternative water supplies.
The project will consist of the design, permitting and construction of a regional reclaimed water system to supply approximately 30,000 residential, industrial, commercial and golf course customers in the region. The primary reclaimed water source is the City of Tampa’s Howard F. Curren Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility (HFC plant). The project infrastructure will consist of more than 45 miles of reclaimed water transmission pipelines, pumping and storage, and additional distribution pipelines and infrastructure. The core project is estimated to cost between $213 and $262 million, and will take approximately 10 years to complete. The District and its partners are pursuing state and federal grants to help defray project costs.
The District has eight regional Basin Boards that provide guidance for local programs that are specific to the watershed basins they protect. The District’s ninth basin, the Green Swamp, is administered by the Governing Board. Basin Boards work with local governments and other entities on water resource projects that have an impact in local communities. Basin Boards often provide partial funding for these projects in partnership with a local government or local cooperator. The Hillsborough River Basin Board area covers portions of Hillsborough, Pasco and Polk counties.
Basin Board members are unpaid citizen volunteers appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate. They serve three-year staggered terms. Each of the Basin Boards includes a minimum of one person from each county within the basin, and there must be at least three members on each board. Each Basin Board has at least one of the 11 members of the District’s Governing Board that serves as the Board’s chair ex officio.
The District’s Governing Board will adopt millage rates for the District’s General Fund and the eight Basin Boards in September after two statutorily required public Truth in Millage (TRIM) hearings have been held. The first hearing will be Sept. 13 at 5:01 p.m. at the District’s Tampa Service Office.
The Governor’s office will review and approve the budgets of all five water management districts before the second and final public hearing.
The District’s second and final TRIM hearing will be Sept. 27 at 5:01 p.m. at the District’s Brooksville headquarters. At this hearing, the Governing Board will formally adopt the final millage rates and budgets. The public is welcome to attend any Governing Board or Basin Board meetings to provide comment on the proposed budgets.