{"id":186085,"date":"2026-03-10T19:25:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T19:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/186085\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T19:25:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T19:25:12","slug":"the-water-shortage-in-our-region-is-worsening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/186085\/","title":{"rendered":"The water shortage in our region is worsening"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"water
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe C.W. Bill Young Reservoir.
\nPhoto by Juanita Hurtado Hu\u00e9rfano\/WMNF News (Feb. 2026).<\/p>\n

Listen:<\/p>\n

The water shortage in our region is worsening<\/a> right as the driest months begin.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Tampa Bay Water announced a stage three drought<\/a>. Chief science officer for the organization, Warren Hogg, says the drought is one of the worst the state has seen in 50 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe now have no river water to use in our regional system\u201d Hogg said. \u201cWe are now relying on groundwater, desalinated seawater and water stored in our regional reservoir.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is urging the public to increase conservation efforts. According to him, the reservoir levels projections for the next three months are showing concerning numbers.<\/p>\n

Hogg recalls two years ago when another water shortage could have been critical without residents pitching in. <\/p>\n

He says the effort can come in small steps: knowing your watering day, turning the water off when brushing your teeth, and reducing shower times. These actions can add up to 80 gallons of water saved per week.<\/p>\n

There are no new restrictions yet, but Hogg says they are likely to come if the drought becomes more extreme.<\/p>\n

Water demand continues to increase. Last month water usage was 4% higher than February of 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The C.W. Bill Young Reservoir. Photo by Juanita Hurtado Hu\u00e9rfano\/WMNF News (Feb. 2026). Listen: The water shortage in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[30415,135,137,136,4103,40940,87447,21160,21161],"class_list":["post-186085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-news-and-public-affairs","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-water","tag-water-conservation","tag-water-irrigation","tag-water-restrictions","tag-water-shortage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186085","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=186085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}