{"id":181302,"date":"2026-03-06T21:52:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T21:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/181302\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T21:52:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T21:52:31","slug":"tampa-bay-water-triggers-stage-3-water-shortage-amid-historic-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/181302\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Water triggers Stage 3 water shortage amid historic drought"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">SARASOTA, Fla. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/\">WWSB<\/a>) &#8211; Tampa Bay Water declared an \u201cextreme Stage 3 water supply shortage\u201d Friday, citing low rainfall, low river flows and projected low levels in the region\u2019s reservoir.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The announcement came during a briefing March 6. Cheif Science Officer with Tampa Bay Water, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tampabaywater.org\/blog\/warren-hogg-selected-as-new-chief-science-officer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tampabaywater.org\/blog\/warren-hogg-selected-as-new-chief-science-officer\/\">Warren Hogg<\/a> said the region is not facing an immediate loss of drinking water.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cTo be clear, we are not running out of drinking water,\u201d Hogg said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Tampa Bay Water said meeting demand will require heavier reliance on groundwater and desalinated seawater. Hogg said river water is currently unavailable to the system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cRight now, there is no river water available for us,\u201d Hogg said. \u201cAll of our water comes from the regional reservoir.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">RELATED STORY | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/2026\/03\/06\/swfwmd-urges-year-round-water-conservation-aquifer-levels-fall-below-normal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/2026\/03\/06\/swfwmd-urges-year-round-water-conservation-aquifer-levels-fall-below-normal\/\">SWFMD urges year-round water conservation as aquifer levels fall below normal<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">He cited a rainfall deficit of about 12 inches over the past year and said, \u201cThis is the driest it\u2019s been in about the last 50 years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Hogg said the Stage 3 trigger evaluates \u201cboth river flow deficits and where we expect the reservoir to be in three months from now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe look forward like that so we can take actions now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Tampa Bay Water said it does not set watering restrictions. Hogg said restrictions are set by \u201cthe local water management district and local governments,\u201d and that as drought conditions worsen, \u201cthe restrictions could become tighter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The next level of restrictions, Hogg said, could be hand-watering only. \u201cHand-watering means from a hose with a shut-off nozzle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Residents were urged to follow one-day-a-week watering schedules. Hogg directed residents to <a href=\"https:\/\/mywaterday.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/mywaterday.org\">mywaterday.org<\/a> to find their assigned watering day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Additional conservation steps listed by Hogg include turning off the tap while brushing teeth, fixing household and irrigation leaks, and taking shorter showers. Residents planning new landscaping were urged to wait until summer rains<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Tampa Bay Water said it is studying additional supply options as the region grows, including potential expansion of its seawater desalination plant. Hogg said the agency\u2019s board will decide \u201cwithin the next two years what the new sources will be to meet that growing demand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 WWSB. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) &#8211; Tampa Bay Water declared an \u201cextreme Stage 3 water supply shortage\u201d Friday, citing low&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[85600,135,85603,85601,85599,137,136,85602],"class_list":{"0":"post-181302","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-stage-3-water-supply-shortage-tampa-bay","9":"tag-tampa","10":"tag-tampa-bay-desalination-water-supply","11":"tag-tampa-bay-drought-2026","12":"tag-tampa-bay-water-shortage","13":"tag-tampa-headlines","14":"tag-tampa-news","15":"tag-tampa-water-conservation-restrictions"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}