JENNY STALETOVICH/MIAMI HERALD
At a rare state Senate field hearing, Florida Power & Light defended its operation of the troubled cooling canal system at Turkey Point and its plans to contain the spread of an underground salt water plume.
For the first time, the utility also put a price tag on its ongoing clean-up efforts at the nuclear power plant on southern Biscayne Bay — an estimated $50 million this year alone.
FPL’s vice president of governmental affairs, Mike Sole, told a standing-room-only crowd at the Friday afternoon meeting in Homestead that the bill for that work would likely be passed along to customers.
Indian River Guardian 
I would like to hear what Pilar Turner,Harry Howle and all the other FPL advocates have to say about this serious situation. Do they still want to sell Vero electric to FPL with this costly solution hanging over every customers head? Indian River Shores and the county might want to re-evaluate their positions also.
One frequent commenter, who is blocked from posting on this site because he’s “contributions” are often mean-spirited, wrote:
“Even if $50 million was divided equally among FPL’s 4.6 million customers, that would be a one time payment of less than $11 as opposed to the average Vero residential customer who pays $28.21 every month over FPL rates. Your readers’ math and logic are severely lacking!”
In truth, his math is off. The fact, Vero Electric rate is 119.58 per month per 1000 kWh. County customers on FPL are paying 99.96. That is a difference of 16 percent. FPL’s public relations specialists, and their allies and former colleagues at the Press Journal and TCPalm.com, continue to claim the rate differential between FPL and Vero Electric is 30 percent.
Though the news has been out for nearly four months now, the Press Journal has yet to report FPL’s proposed $1.337 billion rate increase. If approved by the PSC, this increase will add $13 to the average residential bill for FPL customers. Meanwhile, Vero Electric’s rate continue to come down. If FPL’s proposed rate increase is approved by the Florida Public Service Commission, it may be only a matter of a few years before FPL’s rates are equal to or higher then Vero Electric’s.
It is easy to reduce the FPL salt water problem to $11 per customer,but it quite another to think about the impact this salt water invasion has,and will have on Florida’s water supply. To me this is a quality of life issue, and should never have been allowed to occur in the first place. Some one must be held accountable.