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.
The reservoir only has about 6.5 billion gallons in storage to facilitate inspection and investigation of the reservoir’s soil cement layer. When full, the reservoir stores approximately 15 billion gallons of water.
The executive order, which was scheduled to expire Sept. 30, was declared so Tampa Bay Water could prepare for the upcoming dry season by storing more water in the reservoir.
Tampa Bay Water is currently only able to use river water that it can deliver directly from its surface water treatment plant to its interconnected regional water supply system due to the storage limit in the reservoir. The order has been extended through Dec. 31, which will allow Tampa Bay Water to continue producing water from the surface water treatment plant. Producing surface water 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. 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, the region’s 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.
Tampa Bay Water provides water to Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties, as well as the cities of New Port Richey, St. Petersburg and Tampa.