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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

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

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

District staff is asking agricultural and recreational water use permit holders for their input on how the District can make the online permit data submittal process more user-friendly. Reported permit data is used by the water management district to help manage the state’s water resources and can be used by permit holders to conserve water and energy. The District’s goal is to streamline this process and make information easily accessible for the public and District… Read more

Low- and moderate-income first time home buyers in the Tampa Bay area will soon have the opportunity to purchase affordable, water-conserving homes.Florida Home Partnership, Inc. has agreed to take part in the Southwest Florida Water Management District’s Florida Water StarSM Gold (FWSG), a new comprehensive water conservation program for new home construction. This voluntary certification program for builders encourages water efficiency in household appliances,… 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

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’s Governing Board Tuesday recognized a District senior water conservation analyst for being named Water Reuse Person of the Year.Anthony Andrade was named “Water Reuse Person of the Year” when he was presented with the David W. York Reuse Award at the recent Florida Water Resources annual conference in Orlando. The annual award, which is presented by the Florida Water Environment Association (FWEA), is given to the person who… Read more

Blog note: Projects and Partners is a new WaterMatters Blog series that highlights various innovative projects of the District and its partners to benefit the community. District leaders recently celebrated with other community partners the new reclaimed water project at Tampa Electric Company’s Polk Power Station. When in operation later this year, the City of Lakeland plants will pump waste water to a treatment plant about 15 miles away.… 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

The "Southwest Florida Water Management District(Southwest Florida Water Management District)":/ is inviting area landscaping professionals to compete for the title of "Ruling Water Champion" at the District's second Landscape Challenge competition, from 8 a.m. to noon Thursday, March 17 at the District's headquarters, 2379 Broad Street in Brooksville.Teams of landscape maintenance professionals will compete by demonstrating landscape management practices that protect our… Read more

The Southwest Florida Water Management District is announcing the recipients of the 2005 Community Education Grant Program. The grants, which are up to $5,000 each, will help fund projects that provide communities the opportunity to learn about water resources.This year the District awarded 29 grants Districtwide for a total of $107,667.The overall goal of the Community Education Grant Program is to actively engage adults in water-related issues pertaining to conservation,… Read more

The "Southwest Florida Water Management District Governing Board(Governing Board)":/about/governingboard voted on Tuesday to begin the rulemaking process to create a new water use caution area and set a minimum aquifer level in the Dover/Plant City area.The "District(Southwest Florida Water Management District)":http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us will develop regulatory strategies in the new water use caution area that will limit groundwater pumpage.A water use caution area is… Read more

 Jack Dangermond, ESRI president and CEO, presents Axel Griner, District senior GIS analyst, with the District’s special achievement award. The District received a special achievement award at the annual Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) International Users Conference for its vision, leadership and innovative use of geographic information system (GIS) technology. The District was selected from more than 300,000 organizations worldwide. “… Read more

Taking a trip to one of the Sunshine State's beautiful springs soon? If so, you may see a popular “sunny” fish while you're there. Almost 40 percent of all fish found in the Rainbow River System were the Spotted Sunfish, according to a recent paper published in the scientific journal, Florida Scientist, and written by District's Kym Holzwart a senior environmental scientist with the Southwest Florida Water Management District. The District contracted with the Florida… Read more

The Southwest Florida Water Management District and the Town of Redington Shores recently signed an amendment to an existing agreement to move forward on phases two through four of a project that will improve water quality and reduce flooding.Phases two and three include upgrading the stormwater system by adding inlets and storm piping, a Continuous Deflective Separation (CDS) unit, which will treat stormwater runoff, and the associated roadway reconstruction. A CDS unit… Read more

The Southwest Florida Water Management District District) is seeking public input about the order in which minimum flows and levels (MFLs) for lakes, wetlands, rivers, streams and aquifers in the District will be determined. Legislation requires the District to review and, if necessary, revise this schedule each year. Following the directive in the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Emergency Order to conduct all public meetings electronically to reduce the… Read more

The Southwest Florida Water Management District amended its agreements with the cities of Sebring and Avon Park to include annexed land into each city’s comprehensive watershed management plan.The plans will be used to determine feasible drainage alternatives that may be constructed to enhance and restore water quality and natural systems, or for flood protection. The plan will also assist local governments with their land management responsibilities and further the local… Read more

table(webalert). |*Who:*|Southwest Florida Water Management District and Greencastle of Bayonet Point.||*What:*|Greencastle of Bayonet Point, a Port Richey apartment complex, recently became the first in Pasco County to be certified under the "Florida Water Star℠":http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/conservation/florida_water_star/ Community standard.The tour will feature the changes that helped cut the community's monthly water bill in half, which saved them nearly $1,000 a month… Read more

The Southwest Florida Water Management District is working with Pinellas County on two projects that will treat stormwater within the Lake Tarpon watershed, which will improve water quality discharging to the lake.The Lake Tarpon watershed consists of 52.4 square miles, extending from northern Pinellas County into northwest Hillsborough County. The watershed consists of three major drainage basins, including the Brooker Creek, South Creek and Lake Tarpon basins.Both… Read more