The Southwest Florida Water Management District is extending a water shortage emergency authorization that allows Tampa Bay Water to withdraw additional water from the Alafia River because Tampa Bay Water cannot use the full storage capacity of the C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir.
As of Dec. 15, the reservoir only had about 3 billion gallons in storage. When full, the reservoir stores approximately 15 billion gallons of water. Over the summer rainy months, Tampa Bay Water was only able to add enough water to the reservoir bring the storage volume up to about 6 billion gallons, and it has been withdrawing water since mid September to meet regional demand and facilitate investigation of the reservoir’s soil cement layer.
The executive order, which was scheduled to expire Dec. 31, was declared so Tampa Bay Water could prepare for the upcoming dry season by storing more water in the reservoir.
Tampa Bay Water will now, for the duration of the order, primarily use river water that it can deliver directly from its surface water treatment plant to its interconnected regional water supply system. The order has been extended through Set. 30, 2009 to allow Tampa Bay Water to continue producing water from the surface water treatment plant. This supply management strategy will reduce the amount of ground water needed to meet demands.
The order allows Tampa Bay Water to take up to 19 percent of the flow from the Alafia River. Its current water use permit allows withdrawals of 10 percent of the flows. The order also allows up to 60 million gallons of water per day (mgd) to be withdrawn from the river. The permit would otherwise allow a maximum withdrawal of 51.7 mgd. However, the existing permit condition that forbids withdrawals when the average daily flow is less than 124 cubic
feet per second remains in effect. Extensive minimum flow studies of the river demonstrate that these temporary withdrawals pose no significant threat to the ecology of the river.
Tampa Bay Water, a regional wholesale water supplier, stores water in the reservoir for use during the dry season or when other supplies are not sufficient to meet potable water demand. Its other supplies include several major wellfields and a desalination plant.
Tampa Bay Water provides water to Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties, as well as the cities of New Port Richey, St. Petersburg and Tampa. Other cities in the three-county area receive at least some of their water from these six public supply systems.