At its August 11 meeting, the Southwest Florida Water Management District’s Northwest Hillsborough Basin Board adopted a proposed fiscal year 2006 (FY2006) millage rate of 0.268 mill, which is the same as the current fiscal year.
The budget for FY2006 is $9,108,165, which is an increase of $3,064,078 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. 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 FY2006 Basin Board tax would be $26.80, or about $2.23 per month.
The Northwest Hillsborough Basin Board’s FY2006 budget includes funding for Cooperative Funding projects. These projects are proposed by local governments, and are usually funded equally by the Basin Board and the local cooperator. One of the Northwest Hillsborough Basin Board’s Cooperative Funding projects is Phase II of the South Tampa Area Reclaimed (STAR) Project.
This project will provide highly treated reclaimed water to residential and commercial customers in south Tampa and the Westshore area who are currently using potable water for irrigation.
This project includes the design and construction of approximately 20 miles of reclaimed water transmission main, a single 2 million gallon ground storage tank, a re-pumping facility located in the Palma Ceia area, and 63 miles of distribution pipelines to provide reclaimed water for irrigation.
The total projected cost is $23.1 million, with the Northwest Hillsborough Basin Board budgeting $3,908,860 in FY2006, including $926,800 from the state’s Water Protection and Sustainability Program. The Basin Board may contribute additional funding in future fiscal years.
The Northwest Hillsborough Basin Board’s budget also includes $2,316,265 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 provide 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), and 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 Northwest Hillsborough Basin Board area includes the northwest portion of Hillsborough County.
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 who serves as the Board’s chair ex officio.
The District’s Governing Board will adopt millage rates for the District’s General Fund and 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.