Tampa Bay\u2019s regional reservoir continues to recover following much-needed rainfall over the past week, adding 830 million gallons of water since Oct. 8. However, residents hoping for an early reprieve from water restrictions will have to wait.<\/p>\n
According to Tampa Bay Water, the regional wholesale drinking water utility, the C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir held 11.22 billion gallons as of Oct. 12, up from 10.39 billion gallons on Oct. 8, when the agency last apprised Pinellas County Commissioners of the matter.<\/p>\n
The increase represents about an 8% gain in stored water over four days, offering a welcome boost to the region\u2019s water supply as the dry season approaches.<\/p>\n
The reservoir has recorded steady daily gains, rising to 10.6 billion gallons Oct. 9, 10.74 billion gallons Oct. 10 and 11.01 billion gallons Oct. 11, respectively, before reaching its latest reported level.<\/p>\n
The recent rainfall has also improved conditions in the region\u2019s rivers, allowing Tampa Bay Water to draw more heavily on surface water sources.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Hillsborough and Alafia rivers have continued to increase in flow,\u201d said Warren Hogg, Tampa Bay Water\u2019s chief science officer. \u201cAs a result, we\u2019ve been able to harvest 200 million gallons a day, and supply our surface water treatment plant with 60 million gallons a day of river water.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the improving conditions do not mean the region\u2019s water shortage is over.<\/p>\n
Hogg said Tampa Bay Water continues to monitor two key metrics before water shortage measures can be eased: the region\u2019s cumulative rainfall deficit and the median flow of the Hillsborough River.<\/p>\n
The region remains approximately 10 inches below normal rainfall levels over the past 12 months, according to Hogg. Meanwhile, the Hillsborough River\u2019s median flow has averaged approximately 28 million gallons per day below its expected level over the past year.<\/p>\n
Both metrics must improve before officials can consider relaxing water shortage measures.<\/p>\n
Current restrictions include limiting residential lawn watering to once per week; Tampa Bay Water does not regulate usage restrictions \u2013 the Southwest Florida Water Management District does that.<\/p>\n
While a series of rainy days can quickly replenish the reservoir and increase river flows, overcoming a prolonged drought requires sustained improvement across the region\u2019s water sources.<\/p>\n
Despite running a deficit and operating under usage restrictions, Hogg emphasized that we are still insulted from catastrophe.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a very resilient system,\u201d Hogg said. \u201cOur reservoirs are a savings account. We want the most savings. But we will still be in a good position.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay\u2019s regional reservoir continues to recover following much-needed rainfall over the past week, adding 830 million gallons…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-426907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426907","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=426907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}