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• Many rivers in the Tampa Bay region have been severely impacted by flooding from Hurricane Milton. The only flood records higher than what we are experiencing now were in the early 1930s.
• The region received above average rainfall in its rainy season of June through September, and its lakes, streams, ponds, wetlands and aquifer levels were already full before Hurricane Milton brought a tremendous amount of rain to the region…

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The Southwest Florida Water Management District has a new Community Affairs Coordinator for the District’s Sarasota Service Office. Terri Behling, APR will serve as a liaison between the District and the constituents of Sarasota, Manatee, Charlotte and DeSoto counties. She will work closely with the city and county governments and coordinate the District’s Cooperative Funding Initiative. The Sarasota Service Office is located at 6750 Fruitville Road. Behling… Read more

Southwest Florida Water Management District employees recently removed 15 tons of tires and 68 tons of other garbage and debris from a sinkhole near Crews Lake in Pasco County.The removal efforts are part of the District’s Springs Cleanup Initiative to remove solid waste from sinkholes and other karst features within the Springs Coast Basin, which includes Citrus, Hernando, Pasco and Marion counties. The project is in its second year and has been approved for a third year.… Read more

Built on the concept of collaboration, the Central Florida Water Initiative (CFWI) works with the area's 83 utilities to scale water conservation efforts and promote alternative water supplies for a growing population. "The CFWI is focused on regional, multijurisdictional solutions that serve more than one utility, and by extension more residents, businesses, the agricultural community and other water users in the region," said St. Johns River Water Management District… Read more

A project funded by the Southwest Florida Management District and St. Petersburg will improve the quality of the water entering Lake Maggoire.The project will expand on the city’s alum injection system at the16th Street South outfall. Alum is a chemical agent that promotes the formation of large particle aggregates, or floc. The floc is made up of aluminum hydroxide and absorbed constituents of the stormwater. The floc precipitates out of solution, removing a… Read more

The District is taking the state’s annual water conservation efforts in April to another level as the need to conserve is more important than ever. “April is part of Florida’s dry season and the time when the District makes an extra effort to remind residents about the need to conserve,” said Michael Molligan, communications director. “However, this year our water supplies are extremely low, so we have been stepping up our public awareness campaign because we need… Read more

A project funded by the Southwest Florida Management District and the city of Belleair Beach will reduce flooding and improve water quality.The project will upgrade the city’s stormwater management system near 12th Street. The roadways and stormwater infrastructure in the area were built before current water quality programs so the area experiences heavy sediment and pollution loading from Gulf Boulevard. The sediment-laden runoff flows directly into an outfall pipe… Read more

Attention-Grabbing Exhibit A unique exhibit aimed at getting the word out about water conservation will hit the road again in 2004. “The water conservation restroom trailer proved to be an effective tool in getting our message out to a wide variety of people,” said Beth Bartos, communications manager for the District. The District set up the trailer, funded by the Pinellas-Anclote River Basin Board, at five community festivals within the basin last year.… Read more

The City of Wildwood in Sumter Counter is known as “the crossroads of Florida” for its central location near several major roadways in the state. Now, it can also add the distinction of tastiest tap water in West Central Florida. The city’s water department won the annual Best Tasting Drinking Water Contest for Florida Section Region 4 of the American Water Works Association. Mandi Rice, the District’s assistant executive director was one of the judges for Region 4… Read more

“This could change the way we think about construction in the future.”  —Ruffin Gray A Lakeland business saved thousands of gallons of water and paid less for utilities its first year by constructing its new headquarters to Florida Water StarSM standards. Kyra InfoTech, an information technology consulting business headquartered in Lakeland, used 70 percent less water than a comparable business in the area, according to Ruffin Gray,… Read more

Pat Glass, a former Manatee County commissioner, presents David Moore, District executive director, with a plaque recognizing the District’s role in the Manatee Agricultural Reuse System project. A recently completed project is providing reclaimed water to the Manatee County agricultural community, as well as residential and recreational customers. The concept for the Manatee Agricultural Reuse System (MARS) project, which was dedicated in February, began in… Read more

The "Southwest Florida Water Management District's Governing Board":http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/about/governingboard/ voted to let Modified Phase II water shortage restrictions expire today for Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties due to improvements in the region's water resources.This means those counties will return to the District's "year-round water conservation measures":http://www.watermatters.org/restrictions/ unless a stricter local ordinance applies. The… Read more

The "Southwest Florida Water Management District's Governing Board":http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/about/governingboard/ voted to let Modified Phase III water shortage restrictions expire today for Citrus, Hernando, Lake, Levy, and Sumter counties as well as the City of Dunnellon and The Villages in Marion County due to improvements in the region's water resources.This means those counties will return to the District's "year-round water conservation measures":http://www.… Read more

The Southwest Florida Water Management District has developed online tools to help residents find ways to continue saving water beyond Water Conservation Month. While the "Southwest Florida Water Management District(Southwest Florida Water Management District)":http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us advocates "water conservation(Water conservation)":/conservation/ year-round, an extra effort is being made to promote conservation throughout April. Governments and water management… Read more

The Southwest Florida Water Management District is working with the City of Lakeland on a project that will improve water quality in Lake Hollingsworth.The Lake Hollingsworth Westside Stormwater Treatment project consists of the construction of four stormwater treatment wetlands on the west side of the lake. This project builds upon improvements made to the lake by three previous cooperative funding projects a sediment-dredging project, a whole-lake alum application… Read more

Walk through the doors of the new Glazer Children’s Museum in downtown Tampa and you’ll face an impressive two-story exhibit with children hanging from the sky, pretending to be drops of water in the clouds. Water’s Journey was sponsored by the District as part of its education and outreach mission. “Water’s Journey is a showpiece,” said Sarah Cole, the museum’s director of education. “People come up the stairs and say, ‘Wow!’ They just can’t help but to engage… Read more

The best and brightest minds in water reuse from around the world will converge in Tampa this week to take part in the 22nd Annual WateReuse Symposium, which focuses on water reuse and desalination.More than 700 representatives are expected to attend the symposium, which is being held Sept. 9-12 at the Waterside Marriott. This is the first time the WateReuse Association has held its annual event in the Tampa Bay area. The association is a non-profit organization whose… Read more

A project funded by the Southwest Florida Water Management District and the Englewood Water District will bring reclaimed water to the 73 homes in Englewoods Park Forest subdivision.The project includes the design and construction of more than 3,800 linear feet of reclaimed water transmission lines.This project is expected to provide approximately 43,800 gallons per day (gpd) of reclaimed water to meet the current demands of the residential customers, which will offset… Read more

A cooperatively funded program between the Southwest Florida Water Management District and the City of North Port will identify what is causing degraded water quality in the region. The information gathered by the program will be used to develop a water quality improvement plan.The North Port Water Enhancement Program consists of a study that includes water sampling, data collection and analysis.During the course of a year, monthly water samples will be taken from… Read more

The District’s executive director recently declared an emergency order to increase water restrictions including limiting lawn watering to once per week in the Tampa Bay area due to continued drought conditions. Executive Director Blake Guillory declared a Modified Phase II emergency water shortage order for Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties. Under the emergency order, the allowable lawn and landscape watering schedule is reduced to once per week on a specified… Read more