Tampa Bay Water is a regional wholesale water utility located in southwest Florida.
Created by interlocal agreement, the agency is obligated to provide drinking water
supplies to six local governments which include: City of St. Petersburg, City of Tampa,
City of New Port Richey, Hillsborough County, Pasco County and Pinellas County.
Historically, this three county region relied almost entirely on groundwater for drinking
water purposes. This reliance, coupled with cyclical, severe drought conditions and an
expanding regional population, resulted in adverse environmental impacts to local
surficial water features (lakes and wetlands). In order to restore the environment, Tampa
Bay Water agreed to decrease groundwater pumping and develop alternative water
sources. The State of Florida legislatively requires the use of "local sources first", and
considers desalination a means of meeting this statutory expectation.
The alternative supplies developed by Tampa Bay Water include a surface water
treatment plant, a 15 BG reservoir and a desalination facility. It is expected that the
desalination facility will "base load" the regional water supply and provide a "droughtproof"
25 MGD of drinking water. Because of the geographic expanse of the system and
varying local demands, the blend of water that a particular area might receive will vary in the
relative proportions of desalinated water, groundwater and treated surface water. The
varying blends will result in varying water quality both with respect to the historical
groundwater picture of quality and the availability of the new water sources. Includes figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 170 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 5 |
| Published : | 06/17/2004 |
