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Alafia River Basin Board Sets Priorities For 2010

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By YVETTE C. HAMMETT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 2, 2008

In a climate of ailing budgets, the Alafia River Basin Board today set priorities for 2010 meant to buoy conservation efforts.

Spending money on conservation education is a lot less expensive than large capital projects but still shows results to the taxpayers -- more people using less water, board members said.

And the less water people use, the less water must be pumped out of rivers and streams to accommodate a growing region.

The basin board oversees a budget for water resource projects in southern and eastern Hillsborough County as well as in Polk County. It is an arm of the Southwest Florida Water Management District. Its budget is expected to be about $10 million in 2010.

Other priorities include:

•Continuing to look at any needed renovations at Medard Reservoir in Turkey Creek, specifically related to emergency preparedness, should there ever be a berm breach that could cause flooding downstream.

•Seeking alternative water supply projects such as expansion of reclaimed water use and using creative funding to pay for the projects.

•Promoting a regional approach to funding water projects. Board members named as an example an expanded Tampa Electric Co. plant in Polk County that will pipe in reclaimed water from Lakeland and Valrico.

•Developing new water sources and implementing a recovery strategy for the Southern Water Use Caution Area, which includes all of southern Hillsborough County. In that area, overpumping has caused the aquifer to drop 30 feet in some areas.

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 865-1566.

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