Tampa Bay Water is the wholesale water supplier to approximately 2 million people in the three-county area surrounding Tampa Bay, Florida. Population growth during the past 20 years has created increased demands on existing groundwater supplies. These increased demands are considered not to be environmentally sustainable. As a result, Tampa Bay Water, through legislative action and interlocal agreement, was reconstituted as the developer of new water supplies and the major wholesale water purveyor for the region. During the past 6 years, Tampa Bay Water has implemented a new Master Water Plan with development of additional water supplies from surface water, seawater and brackish water desalination, and small quantities of additional groundwater. These new supplies are needed to accommodate new population growth, as well as mandated pumping reductions from existing, environmentally stressed wellfields. The overall operating strategy for this system will be to baseload seawater desalination facilities, to use as much surface water as available and as can be treated during wet weather, and to rely more on existing and small additional groundwater supplies during dry weather when surface water may not be available. This strategy uses the Floridan Aquifer as a large storage reservoir to be filled during wet weather and withdrawn from during dry weather. This strategy is possible because groundwater use permits have reduced allowable average annual use, but peak rates of pumping and well capacities in the existing wellfields have not been changed. The result is a design and construction program for new water supply, treatment and transmission facilities valued in excess of $609 million. Because of the short schedule for project delivery, limited staff availability, and a desire to reduce risks and costs, Tampa Bay Water selected the Design-Build-Operate (DBO) project delivery process for a new 66 million gallons per day capacity surface water treatment plant. This paper presents the key legal and political considerations of the project, as well as the methods used and results of the contractor selection process employed for this DBO project. Legal considerations include compliance with the Consultants Competitive Negotiation Act and the "Government in the Sunshine" provisions of Florida law. Political considerations included a desire by one of the member governments to become the surface water treatment provider for Tampa Bay Water. Includes figures.