Our surface water facilities harvest water from the Alafia River, Hillsborough River and Tampa Bypass Canal for the public water supply.
In 2002, Tampa Bay Water introduced the first alternative to groundwater into our drinking water system - surface water from local rivers. These new surface water supplies and 15-billion gallons of storage have allowed us to rest long-producing wellfields and supply an annual average of 60 million gallons per day (mgd) of drinking water during rainy periods.
The key components of the enhanced surface water system are:
