TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Funding Is A Hurdle For Filtration Baskets

ADVERTISEMENT

By ANGELA DELGADO, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 23, 2008

TOWN 'N COUNTRY - A project the Save Our Canals group thought would expand throughout Hillsborough County may be in danger of disappearing.

On Feb. 7, Save Our Canals member Brian Garry received a letter from county public works director Robert Gordon. The letter was a response to Garry's letter advising the county that the 39 inlet filtration baskets installed in the Bay Crest Park neighborhood in February 2006 were in need of cleaning.

Gordon's reply wasn't what Garry had in mind.

Gordon informed Garry that the basket maintenance was not a county job, and it had not been from the beginning. The county does not have money to clean those baskets because it has its hands full in maintaining 15,000 other inlets throughout Hillsborough. Plus, funding to maintain those inlets was cut 50 percent last fiscal year, and with the passing of Amendment 1 the county will have to cut more funding.

Although the county praised the group's efforts, Gordon stated that if the community isn't able to provide a plan within 60 days detailing how it will maintain the baskets, then the baskets likely will be taken out. Leaving them without maintaining them could cause flooding.

"They only have to be serviced every three months," Garry said. "That's just nonsense. It's like putting an artificial heart in a guy's chest and saying we're not going to take care of it. We're going to take it out and let him die because we can't service it."

The 39 baskets were installed to prevent garbage picked up by stormwater runoff from ending up in the canals that drain into Tampa Bay. In 2004, Save Our Canals filed for a grant, and in 2005 was awarded a Pollution Recovery Trust Fund grant for $41,000.

The baskets work on centrifugal force and hold up to 350 pounds of debris. The carbon fiber collar surrounding the rim of the baskets absorbs oil, grease and anti-freeze. The collars are changed, and the baskets are emptied every three months; during heavy rains they are changed every three weeks.
Suntree Technologies, the company that installed the filters in Bay Crest, filed a report detailing the effectiveness of the baskets; one for Aug. 24, 2006 and the other for Dec. 21, 2006.

According to the reports, 2,688 pounds of debris was collected Aug. 24, and 2,594 pounds of debris was emptied from the baskets Dec. 21. Each basket had about 70 pounds of garbage.

The success recently won Save Our Canals the Gulf Guardian Award, given by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Each basket costs about $800, and maintenance for cleaning each basket and servicing the inlet would run about $120 each time, said John Newton, director of transportation maintenance for public works.

Garry said he contacted county Commissioner Rose Ferlita upon receiving the letter. Ferlita sided with the Save Our Canals group.

"I think it would be criminal to remove them because we cannot maintain them and clean them," Ferlita said. "There were 39 baskets, $800 apiece; for us to just remove them and not get the benefits of what baskets filtrate would be unreasonable."

Martin Montalvo, of the county's stormwater department, agrees that the baskets are beneficial to the area, but the county isn't funded to maintain them. Bay Crest was advised of that, he said, when it approached the county for a right-of-way permit to install the baskets in 2005.

Ferlita said she would discuss this with the county commission to figure out a solution.

"I know that we're in a tight financial constraint, but my suggestion is to reach back," she said.

Ferlita said the commission should go back to the $500,000 that was set aside to conduct a canal study. The study has been done, and she suspects there is money left over to dedicate to the basket maintenance.

"That will give us a viable solution in terms of taking care of it, and at the same time not impose additional constraint on our budget," she said.

The funding would be temporary until the county can find another means to cover the servicing. Recently, Ferlita received an e-mail from the Environmental Protection Commission announcing that roughly $433,000 is available in its Pollution Recovery Fund. That money is to be used to prevent pollution and restore polluted areas affected by "a variety of human activities as well as by the discharge of conventional pollutants," according to the e-mail.

Ferlita is looking into those funds. Meanwhile, Garry is hopeful something can be done to stop the removal of the baskets.

"We took out more than 5,000 pounds of debris in 2006," he said. "We took out concrete, electrical wiring, nails, wood, furniture, plastic bottles; all types of debris was able to be recycled, even. We know when they take 39 of these out there's going to be another six tons of debris in the canals."

Reporter Angela Delgado can be reached at (813) 865-1501 or adelgado@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT