It's an annual condition: As spring turns to summer, rains hold back, forcing water officials to tap well fields.
By BILL COATS
Published June 6, 2004
LUTZ - Right on schedule, Florida has dried up.
Ditches that were mushy in March are crusty now. Lily pads are marooned in mud.
"You can see 4 to 5 feet of mud at the shoreline," said Kelly Polk, describing her lake, Little Lake Wilson, off N Dale Mabry Highway.
"It's gone way down right now," said Antero "Sonny" Fernandez, who lives on Hog Island Lake off County Line Road. "It's probably about 18 inches lower than it should be."
The home stretch of the annual dry season, as it has for decades, brings a vicious cycle that's most visible to lake lovers like Fernandez and Polk.
The same hot, dry springtime that triggers the shrinkage of lakes threatens the greenness of lawns. So lawn owners irrigate more. That forces the regional water authority, Tampa Bay Water, to pump more water from its main supply, the well fields of north Hillsborough and central Pasco counties. That accelerates the drawing down of the Floridan Aquifer, deep under ground. In higher, sandier soil, shallow groundwaters drain down quicker. So the lakes and swamps shrink faster.
Tampa Bay Water is tapping new water sources to stop the long-term environmental damage created by pumping. But those sources have their limits. Well field pumping in May averaged 112-million gallons per day, the highest in 20 months.
"It's still considerably lower than it was before we had our alternate sources," said Warren Hogg, the evaluation and permitting manager at Tampa Bay Water.
True. Two years ago - in the peak of a hot, dry spring - Hogg's agency was pumping an average of 183-million gallons a day.
On Tuesday, Hillsborough County commissioners are to consider restoring the once-a-week limit on lawn sprinkling in the unincorporated county, which was in effect until last November. The restrictions wouldn't apply to residents of Tampa or county residents who are hooked up to city water lines.
The dry spring has particularly stressed a water-treatment plant in southeast Hillsborough, where thousands of new residents are watering recently sodded lawns.
In this area, Tampa Bay Water has met the latest increase in demand by ratcheting up pumping at two of its biggest well fields in Pasco County. The Cypress Creek Wellfield, which had averaged some 9 mgd for a year, pumped 20 mgd in April. The Cross Bar Ranch Wellfield, after averaging 8 mgd, also rose to 20 mgd.
Hogg noted that Cypress Creek once operated at 30 mgd. Cross Bar Ranch has averaged as high as 25 mgd in a month. But both had dropped below 5 mgd at times last winter.
"They got the biggest rest for a long time," Hogg said. "So we went back to them to give us the makeup water during the spring."
Other well fields also have raised pumping, but on smaller scales. Cypress Bridge pumped nearly 6 mgd in April, after averaging 3 mgd. New Tampa's Morris Bridge Wellfield pumped nearly 7 mgd after averaging less than 4 mgd.
The Northwest Hillsborough Regional Wellfield, which has averaged 8 mgd, was pumping more than 12 mgd by mid May. Hogg said that's partly because the Northwest Hillsborough field isn't yet connected to its larger siblings, and must meet all the demand of Hillsborough County water customers in its area.
Several years ago, Tampa Bay Water launched a massive restructuring of its water system to relieve the well fields, raising the price of water more than $7 a month to a typical household.
That helped pay for these new sources:
The infamous desalination plant at Apollo Beach, which is under new ownership and renovations in efforts to reach its goal of producing 25 mgd. Lately, it has averaged 13 mgd.
A less heralded, yet more productive, water plant in Brandon that takes river water from the Hillsborough and Alafia rivers. This plant has produced up to 66 mgd, allowing major pumping cutbacks since it opened in autumn of 2002. But as expected each spring, the plant lost its water source last month when the rivers withered.
"As soon as the summer rains start and the rivers start flowing again, we'll return to surface water and make up the difference with groundwater, as we've been doing," Hogg said.
A 15-billion-gallon reservoir under construction near the Alafia, scheduled for completion in November. During future rainy seasons, Tampa Bay Water will pump surplus water from the Hillsborough and Alafia rivers into the reservoir. During future dry seasons, the agency will pump water from the reservoir into the water system.
The reservoir is likely to miss this year's rainy season, but Hogg is hoping for a wet winter.
"There could be some water available for us there next spring," he said.
Hogg also is hoping for a wet June, even though the National Weather Service is predicting this month to be drier and hotter than normal. Last week, Hogg was watching a high-pressure system on television weather reports.
"If that high-pressure system continues to slide back toward Bermuda, where it was a few weeks ago, we could see our rainy season start in a few weeks," Hogg said.
