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Swiftmud To Address Parking Lot Pollution Threat To River

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By YVETTE C. HAMMETT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 16, 2008

THONOTOSASSA - When visitors head to the state park, their sport utility vans, minivans -- even motorcycles -- haul in a mishmash of mud, chemicals and other mire that can ooze out of the parking lot and into the Hillsborough River.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District is teaming up with the State Department of Environmental Protection to clean up the mess running off parking areas at Hillsborough River State Park.

To do that, they'll divert polluted stormwater runoff into grassy swales before it reaches the protected waterway.

"The whole system was built prior to stormwater regulations, and because the river is an important water body and the city of Tampa's drinking water, this is an important project," said Robyn Felix, spokeswoman for the water district, known as Swiftmud.

Several parking lots at the park were constructed in the 1960s. Some of the drainage ditches, which were built in the 1930s, actually direct polluted stormwater runoff to the river, Felix said.

In addition to use of grassy swales, turf blocks will replace impervious parking lots. The polluted water will seep through holes in the turf blocks and into the sand, which will filter the water it before it reaches the aquifer.

The $1.8 million project, funded by the district's Hillsborough River Basin Board and the Surface Water Improvement and Management program, is scheduled to get under way in late spring and be complete by September 2010.

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 865-1566 or yhammett@tampatrib.com.

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