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Regional reservoir filling again after May rains

Tribune photo by JIM REED

This May 19 photo shows rainwater beginning to refill the reservoir.

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By NEIL JOHNSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 4, 2009

TAMPA - The spate of rain last month gave an early boost to water supplies and allowed the region's utility to begin filling its flawed reservoir a month earlier than normal.

The rain that started May 12 also let Tampa Bay Water begin tapping rivers for drinking water and reduce well-field pumping.

The utility stopped using its 15 billion-gallon reservoir in southern Hillsborough County on March 12 when it ran out of water. By then, the Hillsborough and Alafia rivers along with the Tampa Bypass Canal were too low to be used as water sources.

Instead, the utility leaned on well fields and its desalination plant to provide drinking water for the region.

Summer rains normally start mid-June and it takes a couple of weeks for rivers to rise enough for the utility to siphon water for its C.W. "Bill" Young Reservoir.

This year, water began flowing into the reservoir May 21 and the reservoir now has 1.7 billion gallons, or just more than 10 percent of its capacity.

"It was a nice, early surprise," said Chuck Carden, operations director for Tampa Bay Water, which provides drinking water to Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties, as well as the cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg and New Port Richey.

Rivers and the bypass canal are providing enough water to let the utility take 60 million gallons a day for drinking water in addition to filling the reservoir.

The utility is taking water from only the Alafia and the bypass canal. The Hillsborough River responds more slowly to rainfall and also is Tampa's main water supply.

The reservoir is supposed to provide water through the winter and spring dry season, but cracks in the soil-cement covering of the sides and bottom prevented Tampa Bay Water from filling it completely last summer.

Also, the utility began using it months earlier than expected because summer rains were below normal.

Both factors led to the reservoir running dry before the end of the spring dry season.

The recent rainfall cut water use by about 30 million gallons a day, Carden said.

Despite an early start to filling the reservoir, there isn't enough for Tampa Bay Water to ask for slackened water restrictions.

Carden said the reservoir needs 4.9 billion gallons before the utility will ask the Southwest Florida Water Management District to ease limits on lawn watering.

Those rules for Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco are the toughest ever enacted by the district and are set to expire June 30.

The district's governing board, which meets June 23, can ease the restrictions without a request from Tampa Bay Water.

Reporter Neil Johnson can be reached at (813) 259-7731.

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