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The Southwest Florida Water Management District is launching a new public awareness campaign in the Crystal River/Kings Bay area that will help residents have green lawns, not green water.The multimedia campaign, which was developed to address increasing nitrate levels in Crystal River and Kings Bay, focuses on teaching Citrus and Marion county residents about proper fertilizer use.Excess fertilizer applied to public parks, golf courses and lawns can percolate through the…

The Southwest Florida Water Management District issued a water shortage emergency order Tuesday that allows Tampa Bay Water to withdraw additional water from the Alafia River to store in the C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir in anticipation of the upcoming dry season.As of July 22, the reservoir had only about 4.24 billion gallons in storage.When full, the reservoir stores approximately 15 billion gallons of water.The executive order, which is in effect through Sept. 30,…

The Southwest Florida Water Management District is working with Manatee County Utilities to promote water conservation by providing toilet rebates of up to $100 for each high-volume toilet replaced with a low-flow model.High-volume toilets can use three gallons or more per flush, while low-flow toilets use up to 1.6 gallons per flush.Residential, commercial and industrial customers within the Manatee County Utilities service area, which includes western unincorporated…

The Southwest Florida Water Management District will be conducting “controlled, prescribed burns” during July and August for two District sites in Sarasota County — the Schewe Ranch and the Deer Prairie Creek properties.Both tracts are located to the north and south of I-75 between mile markers 186 and 190, with U.S. Hwy. 41 as its far southern boundary. The property is also located between the Myakka River and the cities of North Port and Warm Mineral…

A cooperative project between the Southwest Florida Water Management District and the City of Lake Wales will reduce flooding near Twin Lakes.During 2004 and 2005, the water levels within Twin Lakes rose significantly and caused flooding in several apartments located east of the lakes. Some of the apartments flooded more than once.According to computer modeling, the 100-year/five-day storm event flood elevations for the lakes would be more the 14 inches higher than the…

The Southwest Florida Water Management District will be conducting “controlled, prescribed burns” during March and April for two District sites in Sarasota County the Schewe Ranch and the Deer Prairie Creek properties.Both tracts are located to the north and south of I-75 between mile markers 186 and 190, with U.S. Hwy. 41 as its far southern boundary. The property is also located between the Myakka River and the cities of North Port and Warm Mineral Springs.…

The Southwest Florida Water Management District Governing Board Tuesday approved a modification to the water use permit (WUP) for Marion County Utilities.The modification to the existing water use permit increases quantities for public supply to an interconnected service area along State Road 200, Dunnellon Airport and JB Ranch. The new permit is for an annual average quantity of 3,774,000 gallons per day (gpd), which is an increase of 454,925 gpd or 13.7 percent.The…

The Southwest Florida Water Management District will be conducting “controlled, prescribed burns” during January and February for two District sites in Sarasota County the Schewe Ranch and the Deer Prairie Creek properties.Both tracts are located to the north and south of I-75 between mile markers 186 and 190, with U.S. Hwy. 41 as its far southern boundary. The property is also located between the Myakka River and the cities of North Port and Warm Mineral…

The Southwest Florida Water Management District will be conducting “controlled, prescribed burns” during the remaining days of October and November for two District sites in Sarasota County the Schewe Ranch and the Deer Prairie Creek properties.Both tracts are located to the north and south of I-75 between mile markers 186 and 190, with U.S. Hwy. 41 as its far southern boundary. The property is also located between the Myakka River and the cities of North Port…

The Southwest Florida Water Management District Governing Board Tuesday modified two water use permits (WUPs) for Marion County Utilities to meet projected increases in water use. Both permits are achieving a per capita rate of 150 gallons per person per day.Marion OaksThe Marion Oaks WUP combines and modifies two public supply permits and increases the permitted quantities. The 91-acre Marion Oaks service area is approximately eight miles southwest of…

The Southwest Florida Water Management District Governing Board today agreed to help pay for a $235 million project to produce 25 million gallons of water per day to meet water supply needs in the Tampa Bay area.Known as the System Configuration II project, the Tampa Bay Water project would take additional water from the Hillsborough River and Tampa Bypass Canal during mid- to high-flow periods to be treated and stored in TBW’s C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir.The…

A project funded by the Southwest Florida Water Management District and the Bay Laurel Center Community Development District will bring reclaimed water to residents who live in the Marion County communities of Candler Hills and On Top of the World.The project includes the design, permitting and construction of a reclaimed water storage and transmission system, which will involve constructing a 2.5 million gallon ground storage tank, 3,500 linear feet of reclaimed water…

The Southwest Florida Management District recently signed an agreement with Polk County to move forward on a project that will help reduce flooding associated with heavy rains in the Saddlebag Lake Watershed.The Saddlebag Lake Watershed spans approximately 9.5 miles in southeast Polk County. Water levels in Saddlebag Lake and Lake Thomas rose dramatically after three hurricanes and four years of above average rainfall. More than 300 homes in the area were flooded and roads…

The Southwest Florida Water Management District and the City of Inverness recently signed an agreement for a project that will save 700,000 gallons of water per day (gpd).This project will allow the Inverness Golf and Country Club to reduce its dependence on potable water sources for irrigation at its golf course and give the city the ability to provide reclaimed water, through existing piping, to the Citrus County Holden Park athletic fields to reduce its use of groundwater…

The Southwest Florida Water Management District and the City of Sarasota recently approved an agreement to work together on a project that will extend reclaimed water service to Payne Park.The Payne Park Reuse Project consists of the construction of approximately 4,280 linear feet of reclaimed water transmission line to connect Payne Park with the city’s downtown loop reclaimed water system.Payne Park is being developed in phases on a former mobile home park site and…

A project jointly funded by the Southwest Florida Water Management District and Pasco County will allow approximately 300 residential customers to connect to reclaimed water service.The Timber Greens Golf Course currently pumps reclaimed water directly from the Pasco County Reuse Transmission System, which lowers reclaimed water pressure in the area near the golf course. Because of this loss in pressure, the county has not been able to offer reclaimed water to some nearby…

The Southwest Florida Water Management District has begun construction of a project that will improve water quality entering McKay Bay and Tampa Bay.The McKay Bay-Eastshore Commerce Park Parcel Stormwater Retrofit project will treat runoff from the 1,050-acre basin within the McKay Bay watershed of Tampa Bay, which is a Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) priority water body. The project will be built on land owned by Tampa Bay Water.Stormwater will be diverted…

The Southwest Florida Water Management District is holding a workshop to gather the public’s input on how the Starkey Wilderness Preserve should be managed and used.The workshop will be held at the Starkey Environmental Education Center on Thursday, April 28 at 6 p.m. The environmental center is located at the Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park, 10500 Wilderness Park Road in New Port Richey.The Starkey Wilderness Preserve encompasses more than 19,000 acres of land in…

The Southwest Florida Water Management District is asking for the public’s input on updating the land management plan for the Starkey Wilderness Preserve.A workshop will be held at the Starkey Environmental Education Center on Thursday, April 28 at 6 p.m. The environmental center is located at the Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park, 10500 Wilderness Park Road in New Port Richey.The Starkey Wilderness Preserve encompasses more than 19,000 acres of land in southwestern…

table(webalert). |Who:|Stewart Middle School students and staff.||*What:*|Students will continue a shoreline restoration project that began in 2008 by collecting trash along the Hillsborough River shoreline and planting 300 native plants. It's part of a unique project between the District and Hillsborough County Public Schools at Stewart Middle School, which is located on the Hillsborough River near downtown Tampa. The project involved restoring a section of shoreline by…