If you’ve visited the Tampa Bay Water Wise website to see if you’re eligible for a rebate for saving water, you may not have found your address. To ensure wider participation, Tampa Bay Water is opening the program to more customers, as long as they meet all the program requirements.
“The goal of the Water Wise rebate program is to save 11 million gallons of water per day by 2030. It’s a joint effort among Tampa Bay Water, our member governments and the Southwest Florida Water Management District, so we want every eligible customer to be able to take part in it,” said Amelia Brown, demand management program manager for Tampa Bay Water.
Another change increases the rebate amount for cooling towers. The current amount is $1,000; however, cooling tower efficiency upgrades often cost tens of thousands of dollars to implement. Tampa Bay Water is looking to increase the amount of the rebate to encourage building owners to install water-efficient cooling towers.
“We’re proposing to base the cooling tower rebate on the volume of water saved, valued at $0.50 per 1,000 gallons saved over a 10-year period,” Brown said.
Tampa Bay Water is also looking to clean up the language in its contract with EGIA, the rebate program administrator, to make the process for making low-cost and no-cost changes to the program more efficient. The contract change request will be brought to the board in April for approval.
Water Wise offers 11 types of rebates for residential and non-residential customers who purchase or implement new water savings devices or measures. The program has paid 307 rebates for an estimated 10,928 gallons of water saved per day.
Of the rebates paid:
If you are a utility customer of Hillsborough, Pasco or Pinellas counties, or the cities of New Port Richey, St. Petersburg or Tampa, visit tampabaywaterwise.org to learn more about available rebates.
