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The Southwest Florida Water Management District would like to invite local schools to participate in this year’s World Water Monitoring Day activities.World Water Monitoring Day is actually a month-long, international outreach program that builds public awareness and involvement in protecting water resources around the world. The annual event invites students to monitor the quality of their local rivers, streams, estuaries, and other waterbodies from September 18 to… Read more

The Southwest Florida Water Management District’s Governing Board Tuesday renewed and modified a water use permit (WUP) for the City of Lakeland.The modified permit increases the permitted quantities for the city. The previous annual average permitted quantity was 30.2 million gallons of water per day (mgd.) The new permitted quantity is 35.03 mgd.The quantity was increased because the permit expiration date was changed from 2014 to 2028, with a corresponding increase… Read more

The Southwest Florida Water Management District is inviting the public to come out and “Make a Splash” at a special event focusing on the Brooker Creek watershed on Saturday, Oct. 23 at the Kash N’ Karry located at the corner of Gunn Highway and Van Dyke Road. The event is being held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.This Make a Splash with Projec – Water Education for Teachers) event allows kids of all ages to learn about water through hands-on activities that… Read more

The Southwest Florida Water Management District is inviting the public to come out and “Make a Splash” at a special event focusing on the Brooker Creek watershed on Saturday, Oct. 23 at the Kash N’ Karry located at the corner of Gunn Highway and Van Dyke Road. The event is being held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.This Make a Splash with Projec – Water Education for Teachers) event allows kids of all ages to learn about water through hands-on activities that… Read more

The Southwest Florida Water Management District is inviting the public to come out and “Make a Splash” at a special event focusing on the Brooker Creek watershed on Saturday, Oct. 23 at the Kash N’ Karry located at the corner of Gunn Highway and Van Dyke Road. The event is being held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.This Make a Splash with Projec – Water Education for Teachers) event allows kids of all ages to learn about water through hands-on activities that… Read more

The Southwest Florida Water Management District is inviting the public to come out and “Make a Splash” at a special event focusing on the Brooker Creek watershed on Saturday, Oct. 23 at the Kash N’ Karry located at the corner of Gunn Highway and Van Dyke Road. The event is being held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.This Make a Splash with Projec – Water Education for Teachers) event allows kids of all ages to learn about water through hands-on activities that… Read more

The Southwest Florida Water Management District is inviting the public to come out and “Make a Splash” at a special event focusing on the Brooker Creek watershed on Saturday, Oct. 23 at the Kash N’ Karry located at the corner of Gunn Highway and Van Dyke Road. The event is being held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.This Make a Splash with Projec – Water Education for Teachers) event allows kids of all ages to learn about water through hands-on activities that… Read more

Pinellas County waters saw an overall increase of 150 acres in seagrass coverage, according to recently released results from the District’s 2014 seagrass mapping study. Pinellas County waters — St. Joseph Sound, Clearwater Harbor North and Clearwater Harbor South – now collectively support 17,334 acres of seagrass beds.  The District maps seagrass in five estuaries spanning the five coastal counties of Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte… Read more

A project funded by the Southwest Florida Water Management District’s Pinellas-Anclote River Basin Board and Clearwater will make the city’s reclaimed water system more efficient, allowing more customers to connect.The Clearwater Reclaimed Water System Meter Retrofit Project consists of retrofitting approximately 3,300 existing Clearwater reclaimed water connections with individual meters and their related equipment. Retrofitting the meters will allow the city… Read more

Just east of New Tampa’s subdivisions is an area where riders can wander through shaded forested wetlands and sunny pine flatwoods. The Oak Ridge Equestrian Area is a 1,000-acre wilderness made to order for equestrian enthusiasts. The area is part of the Lower Hillsborough Wilderness Preserve, one of the largest premier contiguous recreation areas in Hillsborough County. While the Hillsborough County Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department manages many park… Read more

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… Read more

The Southwest Florida Water Management District (District), along with other local and state partners, launched the Weeki Wachee River Education Campaign to inform river visitors about the recreational best management practices that will help protect the river and reduce ecological impacts. A recent ecologically based study found direct links between recreational use on the river and environmental damage. For example, visitors leaving kayaks while on the… Read more

As teachers go back to school, the Southwest Florida Water Management District would like to remind them about another important date to add to their calendar. The deadline to "apply for a Splash! mini-grant":/education/minigrants/ is Sept. 11, 2009.The goal of the mini-grant program is to promote hands-on water resources education that teaches students about their local watersheds and the freshwater resources within them. Splash! mini-grants provide up to $5,000 per school… Read more

The school year may have come to an end, but educators interested in securing grant funding for next year can begin applying online for a Southwest Florida Water Management District Splash! mini-grant.Grant funding is for classroom projects that focus on water quality, natural systems, water conservation, alternative water sources, flood protection or watersheds.The goal of the mini-grant program is to promote hands-on water resources education that teaches students about… Read more

The Southwest Florida Water Management District Governing Board today approved a project that will reduce groundwater pumping at a strawberry farm in southeastern Hillsborough County.The project involves installing an integrated irrigation system that will include a weather station, soil moisture sensors, and automated valves at Berry Bay Farms.Installing a weather station helps farmers irrigate more precisely, based on weather conditions. For example, during frost-freeze… Read more

Palmetto residents now have a new Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) well. District leaders recently helped the City of Palmetto and other agencies cut the ribbon on the new facility, which will create an anticipated 144 million gallons per year of storage for reclaimed water that would otherwise be discharged into Terra Ceia Bay. In the past 10 years, the city has developed a reclaimed water system that services the majority of residential and commercial customers.… Read more

As the District continues its efforts to protect the Weeki Wachee River, the public should be aware they may see District staff and contractors working in and along the river, including the portion deemed a springs protection zone.  The District regularly conducts important work that helps protect… Read more

Habitats are thriving at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa thanks to a District project aimed at restoring natural systems and improving water quality for Tampa Bay.  District staff completed the third and final phase of a restoration project at MacDill last fall, along the southern tip of Tampa’s Interbay Peninsula near the base’s golf course. Workers dug and expanded water channels, removed non-native plants and planted native species in an effort to improve… Read more

Seven Hernando County teachers are among the educators who were awarded Splash! school grants through the "Southwest Florida Water Management District(Southwest Florida Water Management District)":/.This year 206 "Splash! grants(Splash! School Grants)":/education/schoolgrants were awarded to educators across "the District's 16-county region":/data/map.Mary Margaret Hull, lead communications coordinator, attributes the effectiveness of the grant program in Hernando County to… Read more

The Southwest Florida Water Management District (District) awarded $119,000 in grants to 65 schools within the District as part of the Splash! school grant program. The program provides up to $3,000 per school to enhance student knowledge of freshwater resources in grades K-12. Splash! grants encourage hands-on student learning through STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) activities as well as engagement of the greater school community through… Read more