TEMPLE TERRACE — Temple Terrace City Council members told staff last week to stop chasing a pipeline to Hillsborough County to solve its water issues and focus instead on rebuilding the city’s own water treatment system, a plan that, combined with a temporary PFAS fix, could require a 35% water-rate increase next year.
The direction, given during a special water and sewer budget workshop Aug. 11, moves the city closer to a massive overhaul of its aging water system aimed at softening Temple Terrace’s unusually hard water while removing PFAS, the so-called “forever chemicals.”
The city has been wrestling with a way forward since water testing found levels of PFAS, synthetic chemicals linked to cancer, thyroid disease and other health problems, above federal limits that go into effect in 2031. Under EPA rules, Temple Terrace (and other cities nationwide) must reduce those levels below 4 parts per trillion.
One option was purchasing its water from Hillsborough County. After it was explained to council that could cost more than $90 million, most of the members soured on the idea.
“The first thing we need to do is put to bed the issue between the county and city thing,” said council member James Chambers, who was an early opponent of the proposal. “Whenever all this started, it was from people that thought it was a much quicker, cheaper and an easier process to just flip a switch and the water would come to us.”
While Hillsborough County buys its water from Tampa Bay Water, it could provide water to Temple Terrace. But according to Public Works director Jason Warrenfeltz, connecting with the county for water would have required 3.2 miles of new pipe threading through a wetland, under Interstate 75, down Morris Bridge Road, under Fowler Avenue, across the Hillsborough River and down Gillette and Whiteway.
Crews would likely have to tear up portions of those roads during the monthslong project, with work on Gillette expected to take four to six months.
The price tag: $93 million, not including any additional costs for right of way purchases, with a five- to six-year timeline, which includes roughly a year just to obtain permits.
“There are probably four to six different regulatory agencies that we will have to interact with,” City Manager Carlos Baia said.
By comparison, the city’s preferred in-house option — a nanofiltration system paired with a deep injection well at the city’s Whiteway plant — would cost an estimated $73 million and could be finished a year or so sooner. The city’s plan also addresses future contaminants the EPA is expected to start regulating, not just PFAS.
However, neither option — buying county water or rebuilding the city’s treatment system and continuing to use its own wells — are likely to be completed before the 2031 deadline.
That leaves Temple Terrace needing an expensive bridge to get there.
The council is in favor of purchasing a temporary granulated activated carbon, or GAC, filtration system for about $5.5 million to bring PFAS levels below the new legal threshold until the permanent system is operating.
Buying the equipment rather than renting it for three to four years at about $2.5 million annually would save money, according to city officials, and would allow Temple Terrace to use the utility revenue bond to help pay for it. Bond proceeds could not be used to rent the equipment.
But the temporary fix comes with a catch. Because Temple Terrace’s water is unusually hard, officials were told the filtration media would need to be replaced roughly every 45 days rather than the industry standard of every six months. Each swap would cost about $750,000, bringing the yearly cost to approximately $5.2, according to Baia.
Over several years, the temporary fix will cost $20 million to $25 million, depending on how many years it is utilized.
The potential rate increase produced some concerned debate.
Financial adviser Peter Napoli of Stantec told the council that pairing the temporary filtration system with the $73 million permanent project could require a 35% rate increase in 2027 alone.
For a residential customer using 4,000 gallons of water a month, Napoli estimated the added cost at somewhere in the range of $15 to $20 a month.
Council members were nearly unanimous about ditching the county option and moving forward with both the nanofiltration plant and temporary carbon system. However, they disagreed on how to handle the rate hike.
Council members Alison Fernandez, Gil Schisler and Chambers asked staff to look at spreading the 35% increase over two or three years rather than imposing it all at once. Council member Erik Kravets argued for the opposite approach, raising the rates once, up front, and adjusting downward later if reserves allow.
Mayor Andy Ross asked staff to return with an additional rate scenario spreading the temporary GAC system’s cost over three years before council takes a formal vote. That vote will come at a future council meeting, where unlike the workshop the public will have a chance to weigh in.
Kravets didn’t want to completely close the door on buying water from the county.
He questioned the reliability of the estimates in general, noting the projected cost of connecting to the county system has ballooned from roughly $20 million to more than $90 million in the past year.
He also questioned whether the city’s $73 million estimate for its own nanofiltration system, also based on older projections, could similarly climb, closing the gap between the two options.
He favored the temporary GAC solution and said it would buy time for an “apples-to-apples” comparison between the county connection and nanofiltration plant options with updated numbers.
“I have very low level of belief in the numbers at any given time,” Kravets said. “Every single meeting we’ve been in, the numbers have been different. So I’m not in a position right now to say that I really believe any of the numbers.”
Baia cautioned that all of the estimates remain preliminary.
Despite the daunting price tag and looming federal deadline, Ross stressed that residents shouldn’t interpret the discussion to mean Temple Terrace’s water currently violates drinking-water regulations.
“I don’t want to lose sight of the fact that, despite the concerns and all the hype, Temple Terrace’s water is in compliance with all federal and state regulations currently,” Ross said. “Do we have PFAS problems? Yeah, and I think at the end of the day, our city is going to have better water. This is probably a good thing. We need to be doing some of this stuff anyway.”