The Southwest Florida Water Management District extended two water shortage emergency orders that allow Tampa Bay Water to withdraw additional water from the Alafia River and the Tampa Bypass Canal to store in the C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir. Drought conditions have caused an acute water shortage within the region so emergency actions are necessary to protect public health, safety and welfare.
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.
The executive orders, which are in effect for 30 days, allow Tampa Bay Water to take up to 19 percent of the flow from the Alafia River. Its current water use permit allows withdrawals of only 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.
The executive orders also allow Tampa Bay Water to withdraw temporarily 100 percent of the flow from the Tampa Bypass Canal, as long as water levels in the lower pool of the canal remain at or above 9 feet (a level needed to assure proper functioning of the canal’s flood control structures.)
At the end of July, the reservoir had only about 2.4 billion gallons in storage. Since the emergency orders went into effect Aug. 3, these orders, and favorable weather, have allowed Tampa Bay Water to increase reservoir storage to more than 5.7 billion gallons. When full, the reservoir stores approximately 15 billion gallons of water.
The emergency orders were originally scheduled to expire on Aug. 29, 2007. The action taken modified these orders, extending them through Sept. 26, 2007.