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 to continue to fill the C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir.
As of Sept. 15, the reservoir had about 11.2 billion gallons in storage. When full, the reservoir stores approximately 15 billion gallons of water.
The executive order, which was scheduled to expire Sept. 30, has been extended through Dec. 31, 2009 to allow Tampa Bay Water to continue storing river water in the reservoir during the fall and winter months when surface water flows begin to decline. This action will also allow Tampa Bay Water to continue delivering treated river water to help meet daily demand on its regional water system, further reducing the amount of ground water it needs to pump to meet demands.
As of July 31, Tampa Bay Water was pumping an annual average of 99.43 million gallons of water per day (mgd) from its wellfields. The public supplier must reduce that amount to 90 mgd or less to comply with its water use permit.
This summer surface water flows in the Alafia River have been averaging in the historical normal range, but have experienced large fluctuations due to the abnormal summer rainfall pattern.
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 The order also allows up to 60 mgd to be withdrawn from the river while not exceeding 19 percent of the flow. 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 changes to the withdrawal schedule 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 the 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. Additional cities in the three-county area receive at least some of their water from these six public supply systems, which collectively serve more than 2.4 million people.