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LIVE BLOG: Updates on Hurricane Milton

Do you know where your water comes from? We'll take you on your water's journey to your home

Chandler Balkcom
/
WUSF Public Media
Drinking water for residents in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties is made up of aquifer, river and Gulf waters. And it goes through a lot before reaching your faucet.

Drinking water for residents in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties is made up of aquifer, river and Gulf waters. And it goes through a lot before reaching your faucet.

At some point today, you'll probably turn your sink handle, releasing clean, potable water.

But do you ever wonder where it comes from?

ALSO READ: Hundreds of lakes and wetlands have rebounded since Tampa Bay Water was formed 25 years ago

If you’re in Hillsborough, Pinellas or Pasco counties it's likely a combination of aquifer, river, and Gulf waters.

It's pumped and treated by the utility Tampa Bay Water before being sold to your distributor.

Let’s follow your water’s journey into your home.

South Central Hillsborough Wellfield

South Central Hillsborough Wellfield is one of over 170 groundwater wells owned by Tampa Bay Water across the tri-county region.
Chandler Balkcom
/
WUSF Public Media
Justin Fox at the South Central Hillsborough Wellfield, which is one of over 170 groundwater wells owned by Tampa Bay Water across the tri-county region.

We’ll start our tour at what used to be the Tampa Bay area's only source of drinking water: the Floridan aquifer.

We’re at the South Central Hillsborough Wellfield. It's a small sturdy building with a green roof surrounded by nature and a chain link fence. Inside, the confined space makes the water pump sounds bounce off the walls. It’s really loud.

 Inside the South Central Hillsborough Wellfield pump building.
Chandler Balkcom
/
WUSF Public Media
Inside the South Central Hillsborough Wellfield.

"What you're hearing is a pump right now running in the background. That pump is reaching down about 150 to 170 feet into the ground, and pulling water up out of the Floridan aquifer. And then we're taking that water and sending it to a nearby plant here for chemical addition. We don't have to treat it much, but we are going to add chlorine into there and make sure that is safe to be sent out into the distribution system,” said Justin Fox with Tampa Bay Water.

About half of the water the utility sends out comes from the Floridan aquifer. It has about 177 different wells throughout the tri-county area.

Too much water was being pumped from underground 25 years ago, drying out area lakes and wetlands, so Tampa Bay Water was created to find alternate sources.

Tampa Bay Regional Surface Water Treatment Plant

Different pools of water underneath a pavilion.
Chandler Balkcom
/
WUSF Public Media
Different pools of water underneath a pavilion.

That brings us to the utility's surface water treatment plant in Tampa.

It’s here where water from the Alafia River and Hillsborough Bypass Canal gets treated.

Fox walks me through the outdoor concrete area. Under a pavilion, there are pools of water differing in clarity and color, and more noisy machinery.

"We are standing over the beginning part of the plant. We have just introduced the chemicals into there," he said.

In the pool of water to the right you can see the water is a rusty red color.
Chandler Balkcom
/
WUSF Public Media
To the right, you can see the pool of water is a rusty red color.

An iron compound is added for cleaning, so it looks like rusty water. These rust-like particles are growing bigger because other unwanted particles are attracted to the iron.

“As they grow larger, they get heavier, and they start to settle out of the water. They're just too heavy to stay afloat,” Fox said.

We take a few steps down to the next pool where we see the water has become clearer.

“But it's not clean and able to be drank yet. That water still has viruses and bacteria in there that we need to treat with our ozone process just next down the line,” he said.

Clearer water is flowing through the weirs before going into the maze for ozone exposure.
Tampa Bay Water
/
Courtesy
Clearer water is flowing through the weirs before going into the maze for ozone exposure.

We move to the baffle system. It's another pool but with narrow concrete walls that make the water travel a longer distance, which slows it down.

“That baffle system is making the water go through a maze, and that's giving it a longer contact time. We want that ozone to be able to get into the water and react long enough to kill everything that's in there,” Fox said.

But breathing-in ozone can be a hazard so industrial stacks behind us destroy any excess ozone coming off the water, transforming that back into oxygen so that it's safe.

The water then goes through a sand filter and a carbon filter before chlorine is finally added.

River water represents about half the H2O in Tampa Bay Water's system. The plant can treat a maximum of 120 million gallons per day, but how much gets pumped is seasonal, based on rainfall.

C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir

The C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir in Lithia.
Chandler Balkcom
/
WUSF Public Media
The C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir in Lithia.

During dry times, the utility can pull from their piggy bank… a freshwater reservoir in Lithia.

To get there, Fox drives us up a paved road that climbs about 70 feet to the top of the wall that contains the reservoir. We’re surrounded by 5,000 acres of preserved greenery.

Alligators sunning on the south side of the reservoir.
Chandler Balkcom
/
WUSF Public Media
Alligators sunning on the south side of the reservoir.

"The reservoir, as we're looking out, is approximately 15 and a half billion gallons of water, which to put in perspective … is going to fill Raymond James Stadium about 33 times,” he said.

Before this water fills our cups, it's enjoyed by fish, birds, and even easily spooked alligators.

On the south side of the reservoir, about eight gators are sunning on a boat ramp. Once they spot us, one-by-one they glide into the water. As the gators move out, so do we... to our last stop: the seawater desalination plant in Gibsonton near Apollo Beach.

Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Plant

About 30 feet above ground at the desalination plant where water usually flows in vats beneath.
Chandler Balkcom
/
WUSF Public Media
About 30 feet above ground at the desalination plant where water usually flows in vats beneath.

We're outside on a concrete platform about 30 feet high.

"We're at the very beginning of the plant of where the water is coming in to our plant here. Behind me is TECO's Big Bend powerplant. We actually take our water in off of one of their canals. They have a cooling water loop that runs underneath of their facility,” Fox said.

When Tampa Electric, or TECO, releases the water it’s warm, which works out for Tampa Bay Water because it’s easier to treat.

It's quiet here today because TECO took their cooling system offline for maintenance, but the desal plant is capable of turning 40 million gallons of salty gulf water into 25 million gallons of drinking water a day.

Large vats like this one are typically filled with salt water from the Gulf of Mexico.
Chandler Balkcom
/
WUSF Public Media
Large vats like this one are typically filled with salt water from the Gulf of Mexico.

It smells fishy and like what you’d expect… salt water.

“And when these are tanks are full, it smells like you're at the beach,” Fox said.

The saltwater usually comes into these big vats below us. It goes through an extensive filtration process of sand, soft rock, cartridge, and finally thin sheets they call membranes.

"Then the water is pretty pure water, but it's very aggressive. It's going to want to dissolve a lot of things at that point, so we actually add things back into the water to make it more tasty,” he said.

“People prefer a water that has some minerals in it and some gasses in there, so we may add in carbon dioxide to adjust pH. We will add in lime, which is a calcium product."

This is the diatomaceous earth filter room. Diatomaceous earth is made up of tiny bodies of prehistoric creatures that are mined, and then used for filtration.
Chandler Balkcom
/
WUSF Public Media
This is the diatomaceous earth filter room. Diatomaceous earth is made up of tiny bodies of prehistoric creatures that are mined, and then used for filtration.

This whole process uses a lot more energy and money than other treated waters.

The groundwater facility, on average, costs about $1 per 1000 gallons produced. Surface water is about twice that. And desal, depending on chemical and electricity costs, will be anywhere from three-to-five times more expensive than groundwater.

Fox said the biggest reason Tampa Bay Water is investing in desal is because it's sustainable and it’s drought proof.

"I don't think it can exist on its own. Our water rates would be very, very expensive, but I think it can be a good staple within the sources that we at Tampa Bay Water are using and will hopefully be able to continue to use for years to come,” he said.

Right now, the desal makes up 8%-12% of the overall water produced, with groundwater and surface water equally filling out the rest.

Tapping more into desal could be in our future as the area grows.

Until then, Fox said people need to be conscious of how they’re using water.

"Our water here is plentiful, but it's not unlimited. And so, we need to make sure that we're using that water wisely, that we're using that water in a sustainable manner,” he said.

That way, when you turn on your faucet, the water will continue to flow.

These cartridge filters are the last line of defense before being filtered into thin membranes.
Chandler Balkcom
/
WUSF Public Media
These cartridge filters are the last line of defense before being filtered into thin membranes.

My main role for WUSF is to report on climate change and the environment, while taking part in NPR’s High-Impact Climate Change Team. I’m also a participant of the Florida Climate Change Reporting Network.
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