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Marion pays for a voice in 2 area
water partnerships |
BY
CHRISTOPHER CURRY
STAR-BANNER
OCALA - Marion County will pay a little more than
$200,000 to remain in the mix on two potential
partnerships for future water supply projects.
The county will pay $10,000 to remain part of the
discussion for at least another year on a
desalinization plant planned on the Atlantic Coast
in Flagler County.
After a 17-year hiatus, Marion County also will
return as an active member of the Withlacoochee
Regional Water Supply Authority. That special
government district provides water to the counties
of Hernando, Sumter and Citrus, their
municipalities, Ocala and The Villages. It owns
well fields, and its board is looking at the
possible construction of a desalinization plant at
the nuclear power plant in Crystal River.
To get back in, the county will have to pay
$145,000 for a consultant to add Marion's
information to the authority's long-term water
supply and conservation master plan. The county
also will pay about $54,000 in annual dues in the
upcoming fiscal year.
The cost could have been much more. The
Withlacoochee authority's board broke from its
rules and allowed Marion County back in without
paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in past
dues the county accumulated since 1991.
The County Commission approved both expenditures
at its meeting Tuesday.
Paying $10,000 to remain a nonvoting partner for
at least the next year on the Coquina Coast
desalination project in Flagler keeps the county's
future water needs in the first phase of the
project's planning.
The project's estimated cost could make Marion
drop out after the year is up. In March, a
consultant hired by the St. Johns River Water
Management District estimated the Flagler
project's construction cost at nearly $1.3
billion, with Marion's share, including
construction of a pipeline, at $542 million.
The decision to remain a partner on the Coquina
Coast project passed 4-1, with Chairman Charlie
Stone voting no.
"What are you getting for your $10,000?" Stone
asked. "I'm not sure how far down the road we're
going to go with the desal."
Commissioner Stan McClain, the board's point
person for the Coquina Coast project and the
Withlacoochee authority, said he believed one more
year of involvement in the Coquina project keeps
Marion up to date on different alternative water
supply projects.
The decision to again become an active member of
the Withlacoochee Regional Water Supply Authority
passed 5-0.
"This partnership, I think, is very important,"
McClain said. "It's more important than the desal.
If you made me choose, I'd choose this one because
of the proximity of the counties involved." |
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