Tampa Bay Water Blog

During last year’s drought, Tampa Bay Water requested an Emergency Order from the Southwest Florida Water Management District to increase withdrawals from the Alafia River to refill our regional reservoir. The order, which expires March 31, 2025, increased the amount that Tampa Bay Water can withdraw above the established Minimum Flow threshold for the river from 10% to 19% and increased the maximum daily withdrawal from 60 million gallons of water per day (mgd) to 75 mgd.

Over the past several months, Tampa Bay Water staff have been meeting with environmental organizations, such as the Tampa Bay Estuary Program’s technical advisory committee, Tampa Bay Waterkeeper, Tampa Bay Sierra Club leadership and the Agency on Bay & Coastal Management’s natural resources/environmental impact committee. Tampa Bay Water staff provided an overview of all the potential surface water projects for which the utility is conducting feasibility studies and provided an overview of the proposed Alafia River Water Use Permit increase, which would increase the annual average withdrawal from the river from approximately 18.7 mgd to 24.7 mgd. Feedback gained during these presentations was positive.

The proposed increase is consistent with the Minimum Flow for the Alafia River developed and adopted by the Southwest Florida Water Management District.

Staff will bring a Water Use Permit application to the board for consideration at the April meeting.

“Increasing our average annual withdrawal by 6 mgd is a small amount compared to the available water flows in the Alafia River, but it is a big amount to us, especially in light of the significant population growth in the region,” said Warren Hogg, chief science officer for Tampa Bay Water.