Saturday, June 20, 2009

The City will keep its head above water by building our Reverse Osmosis System

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This morning I thought that I would sit down with a cup of coffee and take my time, relax, and read the Post. I didn't get past the editorial on Lake Worth water and the Mayor's statements. As I am hardly an expert on water and just a consumer like everyone else, I have been at every meeting regarding this subject. There were some glaring statements in today's paper that need attention.

We all know that water is considered our most valuable resource and essential to life itself. Believing that, I ask you would it be better to be a supplier of water, with the ability of selling it to municipalities who need it and containing the costs for our residents, or being a buyer of water and being totally dependent upon someone else for our water and its price, a cost that will always go up, not down?

A few years back when I learned that the City planned on dumping waste from the Reverse Osmosis System into our ocean, I immediately said, let’s cut our losses now and stop this. People jammed City hall and spoke in outrage that we could even consider doing something so vile as to contaminate our living reefs. Then the State DEP said that we could NOT dump effluent into the ocean—no more killing of our coral reefs. I then changed my mind again because we could use deep well injection whereby waste is pumped into deep wells where it is contained in the pores of permeable subsurface rock.

When we were given the scenario analysis of either buying our water from Palm Beach County or continuing on with our own Reverse Osmosis System, we were never given the option of buying emergency water from West Palm Beach while we finish our RO. It was not even mentioned. The PB County water was going to require us to spend $24 million in capital costs to interconnect with Palm Beach County which would amount to 2 MGD in 2009 and 1 additional MGD through 2012.

The interconnect was already in place from West Palm Beach and all we were going to have to do for emergency water needs was to turn on a valve. Cost? Nothing but the water itself. The continued insistence on buying from Palm Beach County because the Mayor did not like the taste of West Palm Beach water was incomprehensible. And I like Skippy peanut butter over Jif, but they both have the same nutritional value and you can get used to any taste over time. Lake Worth Media has written on the taste of West Palm Beach water and I even helped with a video on it which will only be used in an emergency and until we finish building our own RO. This is to be short term.

Building our own Reverse Osmosis system giving us initially 3 MGD’s and expandable up to 9 MGD’s was estimated to cost us $39.8 million. Note that this figure was at the original estimate given to us when costs were nearly double. The City has already been told that it would cost much less (anywhere from 25% to 40%) and the Mayor just continues to ignore that fact. Why have they not had the project rebid? What are they waiting for?

In either case, we, the citizens of Lake Worth will have to pay more for our water to pay for either PB County or our own RO and we are right now with new water rates in effect since April 1. We will be paying this increase for five years. The Mayor suggests in today’s paper that the increase of 80% in our water costs over this period is due to the cost of paying for our Reverse Osmosis System only, which is allowing us to be an independent supplier of water, not a buyer. He fails to mention, once again, that either way we elect to go, we would have to pay for it. He conveniently forgot to mention that we must also pay for the piping to be built providing us with Palm Beach County water. Why does he do this?

He also states that we don’t know whether we can get a permit for the discharge. I ask why has the City not applied for a permit? We were already told by the DEP that it will be NO problem, so why is this continually brought up by the Mayor who does not like the taste of West Palm Beach water. Just apply for the permit. What is the problem here?

There are some who want to be cared for from cradle to grave. We have seen our city literally give away our police and fire departments and outsource many other things with the reasoning that it is cheaper and will save us money. There are others who have vision and want to remain independent and say that to control your own destiny is better than having no choice at all.

The County took advantage of our City and we had elected officials who allowed it to happen. We now have a change on the dais and we need to go forward with our own water supply and take all the necessary steps to finish our own Reverse Osmosis System and buy emergency water from West Palm Beach. And once our initial investment is paid as a result of the decision made by visionaries on the dais to go with our own water system, this will allow us to always keep our head above water.

PB Post Editorial The Post says that some say the WPB water tastes "bad." Did they ask anyone who drinks it in West Palm Beach how they like the taste?

7 comments:

  1. I am under the impression that the restaurants at the LW beach use water from WPB. If this is right we may ask the owners if they are receiving any complaints.
    As i view the current members on the LW Commission I fail to see any visionaries. Perhaps I don't appreciate the Labor Center, Chicken and Vegie ordinances or special boards for the illegals.
    We need to first look at how well the city is doing for its citizens with other Enterprises like the Electric, Golf Course, Downtown or the Beach, maintaining our sea walls.
    Until we can get some real visionaries on the dias with some real world busines experience, I think there is little hope for real fiscal responsibility.
    Until the major activistics cease the in fighting and work for progress, we will continue to get the Commissions that we have. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is a defination for insanity.

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  2. Longboat Keys' Mayor,Rothenberg in this weeks Longboat Key News June 12, stated the "purpose of a City is to provide services" (for its' Citizens.)

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  3. Provide services for its citizens. Yes, but not double the cost of what it should be and continue to waste the taxpayers money.

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  4. This article is about our RO--not chickens, not the beach, not the golf course, not the downtown nor is it about illegals. We activists are all working for progress on many fronts. Give an example how we are not doing that? Do you suggest that by speaking out on the issues that we are being divisive? Should we roll over? What?

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  5. That is true. The water at our beach is provided by West Palm Beach.

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  6. Wes Blackman always seems to take an opposite point of view. He says that we signed a contract and should stay with it.

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  7. I revert to Bill Coakley and Lake wroth media for the answers. I consider him an expert on our water situation. Here is one thing he said about the discussion at the County level, etc:

    The vote was a tie vote of 3 to 3. And the imposition of a hardship on the people of Lake Worth to satisfy county water department budget shortfalls and to get their hands on our wells and 15 million dollars worth of infrastructure we just invested in... raises serious legal issues concerning one public agency preying on another... which state law forbids. "It is nothing short of greed at its worst," said one observer who attended the county commission meeting this morning; "they are just making sure they bleed our bond money out so we can't build our RO plant and compete with them... it's just a typical corporate hostile takeover." And it is obvious from the all the contracts presented that the county is now insisting on forcing us into this rotten deal because they want our wells which are on county property but permitted to us for 20 years. That's what they're really after. The revenue producing capability of those wells is enormous.

    It was a bad water contract. The beach bond money is totally separate. It is our money if we submit a Plan. We now have a plan. The County can not hold us hostage for the beach $5 mil.

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