A cooperatively funded project between the Southwest Florida Water Management District and Pinellas County will determine how much pollution is entering Pinellas Countys impaired waters.
The study, which will estimate pollutant loads and yields discharged to impaired Pinellas County waters, will help the District and the County with efforts to improve the water quality in Pinellas County watersheds and ultimately Tampa Bay. To compute estimates of annual pollutant loads, measurements of pollutant concentration made by the Pinellas County Department of Environmental Management monitoring program will be combined with continuous measurements of stream flow at each freshwater sampling location.
Data will be collected at each site for a year. At that time, a report summarizing the pollutant concentration and stream flow data will be prepared. In addition, estimates of the pollutant loads and yields discharged from the drainage basins included in the monitoring program will be made available.
The report will be used to determine pollution control measures that can be constructed or implemented in the impaired areas. Hillsborough County, which is funding a similar effort, and the Technical Advisory Committee of the Tampa Bay Estuary Program will review the model design and outputs.
The study is expected to cost $128,000, with funding being divided between the District and Pinellas County. The District’s funding comes from the Pinellas-Anclote River Basin Board and the District’s Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) Program.