By VICTOR HULL
Staff Writer
NORTH PORT, Fla., Oct. 6, 2000 (Sarasota Herald-Tribune)—North Port, blamed by Charlotte County for straining a regional utility's reserves during the recent drought, is offering to help replenish the storage supply.
The city said it has the capacity to provide as much as 2.5 million gallons per day to the Peace River-Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority. Any extra water from North Port would enable the authority to store more water in its reservoir for use in the upcoming dry season.
"We want to be a team worker," North Port utility engineer Hamid Boozarjomehri said Wednesday. "We want to help each other."
Authority officials agreed at their regular monthly meeting in Bradenton to try to negotiate a deal with the city. In exchange, North Port expects to get a break when it buys water from the authority in the future.
North Port's status as a potential water supplier for its neighbors marks a turnaround from earlier this year, when the city had to get all its water from the Peace River authority. It also reflects the wide disparity in rainfall across Southwest Florida during the summer rainy season.
But North Port's gesture did little to ease tensions with Charlotte County. Charlotte officials have accused North Port of taking more than its share of water from the regional authority over the past several years without paying the full cost.
"I think it's a good idea," Charlotte County Commissioner Adam Cummings said of North Port's offer. "It doesn't make up for 10 years of subsidization. I notice that they want to be compensated for it. They ought to do it gratis."
Charlotte County and North Port have fought skirmishes over water for years. But the city's recent approvals of several large-scale developments and land annexations have prompted more heated debate. Charlotte County has accused North Port of promoting rampant growth at Charlotte's expense.
Charlotte County gets most of its water from the Peace River through a utility owned jointly with Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties, which together make up the Peace River-Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority.
As the primary customer of the utility, Charlotte County pays most of the operation, maintenance and purchase costs for the 12-million- gallons-per-day system. North Port isn't a member of the authority, but has a contract to buy an average of 1.2 million gallons per day annually.
Over the past few years, North Port has exceeded that allotment. Most of the city's demand has come during the dry winter and spring months, when the authority has the least to spare. The city needs the water in dry months when its own water source, the Myakkahatchee Creek, typically runs out.
This year, Cummings said, North Port's demands helped drain the authority's reservoir to dangerously low levels. The reservoir still isn't full, even though the traditional summer rainy season, from June through September, has ended.
The authority has had a hard time refilling its reservoir because of below-average rainfall in the Peace River drainage basin.
In contrast, rainfall near the coast has been heavier, easily filling the Myakkahatchee Creek. As a result, city engineer Boozarjomehri said North Port has water to spare.
The city has a permit to pump a maximum of up to about 2.5 million gallons per day, but needs only an average of 1.6 million to 1.8 million gallons per day to meet customers' demands.
With special permission from the state, the city could pump even more, up to the full plant capacity of 4.4 million gallons daily.
"If they want, we can increase to the maximum now," Boozarjomehri said.
Authority officials said every drop of extra water will help as the region emerges from a 27-month drought. Water levels still aren't back to normal, and utility officials are worried that another exceptionally dry winter and spring will again strain supplies.
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