Commissioners meet today to consider if once-a-week watering should be extended until Aug. 4.
By BILL VARIAN
Published June 30, 2004
TAMPA - Hillsborough commissioners will take a break from their summer vacation to deal with a mini-watering crisis in the south-central part of the county.
According to Tampa Bay Water, residents of the part of the county that includes Brandon, Riverview, Ruskin and Sun City Center are using 35 percent more water in June compared to the same month last year. If it keeps up, the county will likely exceed its water consumption limits for the area.
So commissioners will meet at 2 p.m. today at County Center to consider extending tighter restrictions limiting lawn watering to once a week.
Commissioners previously had voted to restrict yard watering to once a week until July 9, when the rainy season was expected to be in full daily downpour mode. Now they will be asked to extend the once-a-week limit until Aug. 4. By that time they will be back from vacation and can adjust more readily.
"We would ask people not to irrigate unless their (yard) is beginning to show signs of needing water," said Water Department Director Mike McWeeny. "If it's still lush, skip an irrigation day."
Tampa Bay Water officials attribute the spike to a few factors. There was light rain in May and a more than week-long stretch in June with almost no rain, even though afternoon thunder-boomers now seem a daily occurence.
Population growth is resulting in about 400 new residential water hookups a month, as county officials work to connect the area to the rest of the region's water supply. Connecting the area to more water sources is an ongoing project that runs through 2006.
The Tampa Bay Builders Association, hearing the cries from county and Tampa Bay Water officials, notified its members this week of the ongoing watering concern.
In the letter, the group warns that the discussion could turn to threats of a building moratorium if watering limits are exceeded.
The point of the letter was not to raise anxiety among builders, but to encourage members of the group to spread the word on conserving water, said Elise Schreiner, director of governmental affairs for the builders group.
"If we can help protect our own livelihood, we will and we do," Schreiner said.
It may take more than a few weeks of diligence. Figures from Tampa Bay Water show that water consumption has grown in the south-central part of the county every month compared to a year earlier, or an average of 18 percent.
Another alarming trend is that water use has been heaviest on weekends, though neither Saturday nor Sunday is an allowable lawn watering day.
Hillsborough County water officials have shifted almost all of their water police to the south-central area in the past week, and added to their ranks.
They've slightly reduced water pressure levels from the main treatment plant in the area. And they have requested that regulators suspend a construction permit rule that requires landscaping be in place before a new home can be deemed fit for habitation.
"Some of this could be that people just have not gotten the message," said Michelle Biddle, a spokeswoman for Tampa Bay Water. "So we're working really hard to get the message out."
