Tampa Bay Water Blog

Southern Hillsborough County’s transition from agriculture toward mixed use, residential and commercial development presents a challenge and an opportunity for Tampa Bay Water. The challenge is meeting the member governments’ growing need for water. The opportunity is harvesting existing water use permits that are no longer needed. 

Many existing water use permits were issued years ago to users whose needs have changed. A farm may have relocated or closed, or a business may be using far less than it was approved for. That leftover permitted water often goes unused. Tampa Bay Water can acquire the unused permit quantities and use the water for public supply at existing or new wellfields. 

This approach works well for a few reasons: 

• No new strain on the water source. The water was already approved for use, so Tampa Bay Water isn’t increasing aquifer withdrawals. 

• A built-in environmental benefit. Regulators reduce impacts to the aquifer by reducing the permitted amount in the transfer; 10% of the original impact is eliminated to promote aquifer recovery.  

• New supply where no new water is available. It works even in places where new permits are capped. 

• Reasonable cost. Buying existing permit quantity costs less than building a new water supply source, and the transfer is faster than submitting a permit for a new withdrawal. 

So far, Tampa Bay Water has acquired water capacity from eight water use permits in south Hillsborough County that are no longer needed by area landowners. At its October meeting, Tampa Bay Water’s board approved purchasing water capacity from two more permits that were sitting unused: one from DiMare Ruskin LLC, transitioning from agricultural to residential use, and one from Tampa Electric Company, transitioning from agricultural to a solar farm. These two new acquisitions, combined with the Farmland Reserve permit quantity purchased in 2025, will add about 367,900 gallons a day to the new South Hillsborough Wellfield, depending on determinations made by the Southwest Florida Water Management District. During the transfer, prior impacts to the aquifer will be reduced by 10%.  

With these acquisitions, Tampa Bay Water’s board approved submitting a permit modification for the Balm Farm Water Use Permit, which will become the South Hillsborough Wellfield permit, to increase the annual average quantity to about 4.09 million gallons per day.