By Rich Anderson
July 14, 2008

The Mayors Water Council convened a meeting in conjunction with the 76th Annual Meeting. Albuquerque (NM) Mayor Martin J. Chávez and Fayetteville (AR) Mayor Dan Coody co-chaired the meeting.

Jonathan Kennedy, Senior Manager of Engineering and Projects at Tampa Bay Water, presented information on what may be the single largest water treatment design-build-operate (DBO) public-private partnership in the US. Tampa Bay Water currently supplies an average of 264 million gallons of drinking water per day to a population of 2.5 million people. The traditional water source is groundwater; and Tampa Bay Water has begun to add surface water sources to meet demand. However, the agency’s expertise has been developed on groundwater sources, and it has looked to the private sector to partner with the right expertise for surface water treatment which is normally more complicated than treating groundwater.

Tampa Bay Water’s goals included shifting from ground to surface water sources to accommodate current demand and future growth. It also wanted to shift the risk for the more complicated operations and maintenance (O&M) requirements. Finally, they wanted to limit financial exposure and sought to enter a partnership that would achieve long-term savings.

Tampa Bay Water selected Veolia Water of North America as the private partner. The partnership arrangement commits Tampa Bay Water to expand surface water capacity by 120 million gallons a day (MGD). The project involves two design-build phases. The first phase involves developing 97 MGD between 1998 and 2007 at a cost of $85 million. This has already been accomplished. The second phase involves developing an additional 25 MGD between 2006 and 2011 at a cost of $80 million.

A unique feature of the negotiated partnership is the Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) of $126.7 million. Total payments from the public partner Tampa Bay Water will not exceed the GMP unless there is an uncontrollable circumstance. The GMP provision in the service agreement was determined to be reasonable for proposed facilities by a third party.

Kennedy stated that public-private partnerships can be made to work well through proper negotiation. He advised mayors to consider partnerships in their future water and wastewater infrastructure planning. He stated that success is possible if the public partner allocates risks appropriately, and takes the time to develop a full understanding of the project needs and critical path. Also, he advised that cities select partners carefully because the relationship needs to endure for the contract term.

Dr. Ned Godshall, CEO of Altela, Inc., presented information on recently demonstrated technology that is capable of treating brackish water (desalination) to meet drinking water standards. The technology has proven effective in purifying polluted water associated with oil and gas extraction. According to Godshall, the ratio of polluted water to oil product is nine to one, and for gas it is one barrel to one million cubic feet. Polluted water disposal costs from oil extraction operations ranges from $50 to $80 per barrel of oil; and, $2 to $6 per million cubic feet of gas. This disposal cost can be dramatically altered by applying the proprietary Altela filtration technology that utilizes specially designed plastic filters. The Altela technology is capable of desalinating the brackish waters in oil and gas extraction wells at roughly $2 per gallon because it uses one-fourth of the energy normally required with more conventional desalination technology applications.

Godshall estimates that the oil and gas industry alone generates 18 billion barrels per year of polluted water that can be desalinated. This volume of polluted water is enough to cover the entire District of Columbia by as much as 53 feet. Applying the Altela desalination technology could drastically reduce the treatment costs for polluted water at these energy extraction sites and re-introduce the water into groundwater aquifers with total dissolved solids levels that meet standards imposed on drinking water.

Douglas Yoder, Deputy Director of the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department, stated that most public water suppliers have known about the presence of trace amounts of pharmaceuticals and consumer personal care products for some time. He stated, unequivocally, that America has the safest drinking water in the world.

Yoder said the Miami-Dade system services over two million people daily. The region’s drinking water comes from groundwater pumped out of the Biscayne Aquifer, and as such does not contain the pharmaceutical and personal care products that are found in most systems supplied with surface water sources. However, the Miami-Dade system is required by state law to reuse water sent through the sewer system over the next several years, so trace level constituents of any substance is of great concern.

Yoder said the Water and Sewer Department is developing billion dollar investment plans to install reverse osmosis technology and ultra-violet radiation disinfection to ensure the safety of the reuse water. Once it is treated it will be reintroduced into the Biscayne Aquifer. This is important because the Aquifer is being drawn down by repeated, heavy usage, and there is the threat of salt water intrusion.

Additionally, the Department is working with the U.S. Geological Survey to conduct water sampling to check for the presence of trace level pharmaceuticals in the water supply. Yoder indicated that each water sample will cost $10,000 because it will be tested for many substances. The Department is also working with the Sanitation Department to get the word to residents that they should not flush their unused medicines down the drain, but instead add them to their solid waste discards so they are managed in an environmentally sound manner.

Sharon Brigner and Leslie Wood, who represent the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), provided insights from their association’s perspective. They stated that a recent literature review suggests that the trace levels of human pharmaceuticals in US surface waters do not pose a significant health threat via drinking water. They also indicated that pharmaceutical "take-back" programs are not an effective way to deal with the presence of trace levels in drinking water because most of the pharmaceuticals enter sewer systems after human use. There are additional concerns when prescription narcotics are involved that are required by law to be disposed of via the sewer system.

The PhRMA representatives described the "SMARxT DISPOSAL" program established collaboratively by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, PhRMA and the American Pharmacists Association. This is an educational campaign that promotes three steps to safeguard the environment by disposing of unused medicines properly. The steps include: do not flush or pour down the drain any unused medications; discard unused medications in household garbage sealed in plastic bags; and, check for approved state and local collection programs such as community based household hazardous waste programs.

Mark LeChevallier of American Water commented that local elected officials should be interested in learning more about trace levels of pharmaceuticals before they make critical decisions about technology applications or regulations. LeChevallier quoted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Associate Administrator for the Office of Water, Benjamin Grumbles, who cautioned that it would be inappropriate to require expensive monitoring and treatment in the absence of reliable information linking pharmaceuticals and personal care products to potential health risks. He also pointed out that the US EPA has not yet developed approved test methods for detecting a wide range of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in source water and tap water.