Safe drinking water starts at the source. In fact, protecting our region’s water resources is the first step in the multi-barrier process that ultimately leads to safe, clean drinking water at the tap. That’s why Tampa Bay Water invests in outreach and education efforts through its Source Water Protection Mini-Grant Program. The mini-grants range from $2,000-$10,000 and are a cost-effective way to improve public understanding and participation in protecting regional water sources.

Each year, Tampa Bay Water updates its water demand projections, which are the basis for several business decisions. First, the utility’s annual budget is based on projections of what the member governments will need for that fiscal year. Part of the budgeting process includes determining what sources to use to meet those demands in an environmentally sound and cost effective manner. Second, the demand forecast is used for long-term planning to ensure Tampa Bay Water’s supply can meet demand 10 or 20 years in the future.

In its 2015 State of the Water Industry Report, the American Water Works Association (AWWA) reports that renewal and replacement of aging infrastructure is cited by utilities as one of the top five most important issues they face. Following AWWA’s best management practices, Tampa Bay Water’s rates include the full cost of providing water service, and include renewal and replacement costs as well as the cost of collecting, pumping, treating, disinfecting, storing and transporting water.

CLEARWATER, Fla. (December 15, 2015) – Tampa Bay Water announced Monday that it awarded grants to The Glazer Children’s Museum, Girl Scouts of West Central Florida, Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful and Keep Pinellas Beautiful for their efforts to protect the sources of the region’s drinking water. The grants were presented by Tampa Bay Water’s board of directors at its regular board meeting. 

Like many businesses, Tampa Bay Water provides a quality product to its customers. Each year, it must budget how much of that product it believes will be needed and then make sure there is enough supply to meet that demand. Outside factors sometimes play a part in changing that demand, so Tampa Bay Water must adjust for those factors accordingly. Of course, the product we are speaking of is water, and the outside factors that affected its demand levels in 2015 were weather – including record-breaking summer rainfalls.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), climate change is happening. The Earth is warming, and these rising temperatures are accompanied by changes in weather and climate – two factors that play a very important role in existing and future water supplies. This is why Tampa Bay Water is involved in research to understand climate variability and climate change – to better understand its impact on our existing water supplies and infrastructure, and for future water supply planning.

Tampa Bay Water is once again offering $20,000 in mini-grants to fund events and projects sponsored by local community groups, non-profit groups, schools and universities that promote protection of our region’s drinking water sources. The agency is accepting applications until 5 p.m. on Nov. 20, 2015.

When the C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir was built in the early 2000s, the environmental impact consisted of approximately 190 acres of wetlands. To offset this impact, Tampa Bay Water undertook an extensive mitigation project that covered nearly a thousand acres of the 5,500-acre Chito Branch Reserve on which the reservoir is located. Mitigation was performed on three separate areas of the reserve, including:

The old rhyme “April showers bring May flowers,” doesn’t work so well here in central Florida. For us, the rhyme should be, “April and May flowers bring lots of summer showers.”

So what should homeowners do with all this extra rainwater? Why, save it of course!

For the final post in a 5-part series on Tampa Bay Community Water-Wise Awards, we are going to get down to the root of the issue – literally!

The roots we will be discussing are those attached to trees on your property and native plants that make up a Florida-friendly yard.