TAMPA – The city of Tampa gets most of its water from the Hillsborough River, which isn’t very full right now because it wasn’t a very rainy “rainy season.”
“We are in an interesting situation,” Sarah Burns, water planning manager for the city of Tampa Water Department, said. “This summer, we got much less rainfall than we typically do. So we entered this season with a 13-inch rainfall deficit.”
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“So that was great, but it did put us in this situation we’re in now where we really didn’t get a lot of rainstorms either,” Burns added. “And then population growth is certainly part of it.”
It’s also all the development, too, Burns told FOX 13.
“They’ll knock down a smaller house, put in a bigger house, and when they do that, they also put in an automatic irrigation system and St. Augustine grass, which is a very thirsty grass,” Burns said. “And as that happens, you’ll have a lot that, once it’s redeveloped, they’re using ten times as much water just because there’s now an irrigation system there and the type of plants that have been planted.”
By the numbers:
Irrigation alone accounts for roughly half of the city’s current total water demands, which is 83 million gallons per day, according to the water department.
To meet the need, the city of Tampa is purchasing 10 million gallons of water per day because “there’s just not enough water in the river,” Burns said.
Usually, the city doesn’t have to start buying water from Tampa Bay Water until March or April.
“I talked to our production manager: In his entire time at the city of Tampa, this is the earliest we’ve had to buy due to drought conditions,” Burns told FOX 13. “So we buy for other reasons, but we try to manage our purchases. And we avoid purchasing until we have to. Unfortunately, because of the drought conditions, we just don’t have enough water without purchasing water.”
Tampa Bay Water provides nearly all the drinking water for Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas counties, as well as the cities of New Port Richey and St. Petersburg.
According to Tampa Bay Water officials, demand across the board is up.
“Our water demands are roughly 215 gallons per day on average,” Tampa Bay Water public communications manager Brandon Moore said. “And that’s about four percent higher over last year at this time.”
What you can do:
So the message is: Conserve water where you can now. That means only using your irrigation system on your designated days.
For the city of Tampa, click here.
For the city of St. Petersburg, click here.
For Pasco County, click here.
You can also check your home for leaks.
What they’re saying:
“For instance, your toilet: If you check for leaks in your toilet, you can save about 200 gallons per day if you fix those leaks,” Moore said. “Take shorter showers. Only do laundry or dishwashing when those machines are full. And upgrade to water efficient fixtures. There are rebates available for that through tampabaywaterwise.org.”
Because the city of Tampa is buying water from Tampa Bay Water, residents will notice a passthrough charge on their bills. The amount will depend on how much water the city has to buy and how much water the customer uses. However, the water department told FOX 13 the added charge is typically less than $5 on average per month.
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The Source: Information for this story was gathered by FOX 13’s Ariel Plasencia.