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Tampa seeks to resume work on pipeline project

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By CHRISTIAN M. WADE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 29, 2009

TAMPA - The city is pressuring county environmental regulators to let them resume work on a $ 2.1 million water pipeline, which ground to a halt last month after contractors hired by the city excavated debris from a former landfill and disposed of it without a permit.

In a letter to the Hillsborough County Environmental Protection Commission, CH2M Hill Constructors – the company hired by the city to install the 3,800-foot pipeline along 19th Street – said the project is done except for the section near the former Spicola landfill.

On behalf of the city, they asked permission to resume work on the pipeline – which will provide drinking water to residents from Corrine Street to Fifth Avenue – arguing that the permit process was delaying completion of the "crucial water main replacement project."

But the EPC has rejected the city's request, warning them that they cannot resume work on the pipeline until they have been issued a permit from the environmental agency.

"We have advised them if that they decide to move forward with the project without EPC approval, that they do so at their own risk," said Ronald Cope, general manager of the EPC's waste management division. "They've agreed to wait until we finish our review."

The city faces the possibility of hefty fines for the alleged violations.

EPC is investigating allegations that the contractors pumped potentially contaminated groundwater from the former landfill into a nearby stormwater drain and dug up soil and solid waste and dumped it, illegally, at an undisclosed location.

County law requires a permit to excavate near former landfills, but the contractors didn't get one before they began tearing up sections of 19th Street for the new pipeline. City officials claimed that they weren't aware the pipeline would run through the old dump.

So the EPC slapped a stop-work order on that section of the project.

The 19th Street pipeline is one of several high-profile infrastructure projects to replace Tampa's deteriorating water and sewer lines, some of them more than a century old.

When completed, the pipeline is expected to improve water quality and pressure.

The project was scheduled for completion by the end of the summer, but it could be weeks before work resumes on the section of the pipeline near the old landfill.

Known as the "Spicola Landfill" – after the hardware store that occupied the land – the municipal dump operated from about 1938 to 1950, according to city records.

It's one of nine former landfills that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection early last year ordered the city to investigate and clean up if contamination is detected.

Previous tests found above normal levels of arsenic, chloride, lead and mercury in the groundwater at the site, and the DEP has said it wants extensive testing conducted.

Reporter Christian M. Wade can be reached at (813) 259-7679.

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