Tampa Bay Water has been a member of the Water Research Foundation (formerly known as the American Water Works Research Foundation) since 1992. The foundation focuses on applied research important to water and wastewater utilities and leverages the knowledge and expertise of its members to help utilities develop projects to make sound decisions. At the Oct. 17 meeting, Tampa Bay Water’s board voted to renew the agency’s membership in the Water Research Foundation at a cost of $216,071.
Through this membership, Tampa Bay Water and its six member governments, at no additional charge, can access more than 2,300 completed projects valued at over $700 million in research through the foundation’s online research library to help guide their projects and manage their utilities.
Since 2018, Tampa Bay Water and member governments ordered 201 research products, representing a total research value of over $65 million. Over the past five years, 129 Tampa Bay Water and member governments staff have had active online accounts and 18 staff also served or are serving on water research planning bodies.
Agency and member staff have also participated in 27 research projects (23 of which are still ongoing) that cover a wide range of topics including water quality in distribution systems, emerging disinfection byproducts, constituents of emerging concern and source water protection strategies, and many more.
