TEMPLE TERRACE — Temple Terrace’s water woes just got a little more expensive.
And while residents won’t feel it right away, that doesn’t mean they won’t eventually.
The City Council on Oct. 20 approved moving more than $2.2 million out of the city’s water and sewer reserves to pay for rebuilding one of its three master wastewater lift stations, after being told the aging Sierra Bravo facility on Harney Road is a spill risk, and the added cost could affect utility rates down the road.
The city had originally budgeted $2 million for the repairs to the lift station, but the lowest bid of the two it received, from Marolf Environmental, LLC, came in at $4,281,243.72, more than double the budgeted amount.
Finance Director James Ingram told the council the other bid was even higher at nearly $6 million.
The $2 million budgeted in fiscal year 2026 went unspent and carries forward. The remaining $2,281,244 needed will be transferred from the Water and Sewer Fund reserve to the city’s Renewal and Replacement Fund, according to the budget amendment.
Ingram said the reserve would still end fiscal 2027 with a projected $5,608,756.
The lift station repairs effects on future water bills remains to be seen.
Utility bills already went up Oct. 1, when rates adopted Sept. 17 took effect. City staff estimated that a typical household using 5,000 gallons of water and wastewater and 1,500 gallons of irrigation a month would see its bill go from $91.89 to $105.68. That increase is for the upcoming improvements to the city’s water plant on Whitewater Drive as well as PFAS remediation.
Ingram said using reserves for the lift station won’t require rates to go any higher this fiscal year. The city has been building up its water and sewer savings to keep future increases small. Taking $2.28 million out leaves the city reserves for water and sewer still well above the 25% percent threshold the city is required to maintain. Ingram estimates that percentage will still be above 30.
But the change could affect rate increases in fiscal 2028 and beyond, though he couldn’t say how much.
Future rate increases were already anticipated as the city prepares to issue a revenue bond to pay for its major water treatment overhaul. The additional lift station expense could push those increases higher than originally planned.
“I can’t predict 100% yet until we get to that point,” Ingram said, “but I can only assume that that will have some adjustment to do from what we were originally planning.”
Council member Gil Schisler said the effect might not show up right away but could be felt “three years down the road.”
While the city might be tempted to push another big water project down the road while dealing with the current task of updating its water plants and dealing with PFAS, Public Works Director Jason Warrenfeltz said the lift station project needed attention immediately.
The station, a three-pump facility which was built in 1992 and received a minor rehabilitation around 2010, carries most of the city’s wastewater, including flow from unincorporated Hillsborough County to the city of Tampa for treatment. It is located on Harney Road and sits next to the Bypass Canal.
“The bypass canal is an active waterway,” Warrenfeltz said, and if there was a failure, “we would have to do long-term monitoring. We would have to do cleanup. There’s just a series of events. I think that would be that would be very costly to us in the long run until we get through the process.”
A wastewater master plan was completed in 2020 and surveyed all the lift stations in the city. For the Sierra Bravo station, it called for several repairs, including electrical work, a new generator and a grinder to handle rags, clumps of material like wipes, paper towels and hair, that clog the system.
Warrenfeltz said the scope of those repairs grew during design, after engineers took a closer look at the station. The new work will also include new submersible sewer pumps, controls and updated facilities.
An overflow into the canal would be similar to a past spill on Fowler Avenue, Warrenfeltz said.
“This station, as you may know, it’s directly adjacent to the bypass canal,” Warrenfeltz said, “so we want to avoid a sanitary overflow out there at all costs.”
Council member Alison Fernandez asked whether the work could be spread over several years. But Warrenfeltz said that would likely raise the price, since temporary bypass pumping would need to be set up more than once.
The pumping alone is nearly $400,000 on the project.
Without the additional funding, the city would have to start from scratch and re-bid.
“We would be able to accomplish some of the tasks,” said Warrenfeltz. “We just wouldn’t be able to accomplish all of it.”
Council members agreed accomplishing all of it, and in a timely fashion, was the most prudent path, even considering the higher cost.
“Time phasing is not going to accomplish a thing, except as you say, run up some costs, and God help us if we have a major spill into that bypass canal,” Schisler said. “That would be that would be horrific.”
Mayor Andy Ross agreed.
“We do not need to band-aid this kind of thing,” he said. “Everything we’re spending these days, most of it is infrastructure. Almost all of it is infrastructure. This is really putting the city in a position for the next 20, 30, 40 years.”
The contract will return for council approval, which Warrenfeltz expects before year’s end. Construction would start in early 2027 and likely finish in fiscal 2028.