Tampa Bay Water has been awarded a $10 million Alternative Water Supply Grant from the state of Florida to help expand its Regional Surface Water Treatment Plant in Tampa.
Governor Ron DeSantis announced Oct. 28 that the state will allocate $100 million to support a variety of spring restoration and alternative water supply projects.
Tampa Bay Water serves Pinellas County, Hillsborough County and Pasco County, and the cities of St. Petersburg, New Port Richey and Tampa. The organization provides wholesale drinking water to more than 2.6 million people.
“We have a growing demand in the Tampa Bay area,” said Tampa Bay Water senior project manager Karim Molina-Oyola. “The project will also support the resiliency of our water infrastructure. We need more redundancy.”
The facility has been in operation since 2002. Tampa Bay Water uses the site to clean water from the Alafia River, Hillsborough River and Tampa Bypass Canal. Additionally, the organization treats surplus water stored at the C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir in Hillsborough County.
According to the Southwest Florida Water Management District, an alternative water supply uses a “nontraditional source of water, such as reusing wastewater or treating saltwater through a desalination plant,” rather than relying on groundwater.
Prior to beginning work on the effort, Tampa Bay Water received input from the public as part of its Long-Term Master Water Plan update. According to the organization’s website, the expansion was selected from “three top-ranked projects.”
Construction began on the expansion project in September 2025. The approximately $181 million initiative will add up to 12.5 million gallons per day of drinking water treatment capacity. This, Molina-Oyola added, is nearly a 14% increase.
Molina-Oyola explained that the effort will add a fifth treatment process train to the facility’s operations. One can think of a train as an assembly line: After raw water enters the plant, it passes through a series of filters. The water is then treated with chemicals to clean it and make it safe for drinking.
According to Tampa Bay Water’s website, the facility’s ACTIFLO clarification process will be expanded. This “removes color and particles from raw water.” Additionally, the organization will add another ozone contactor. Ozone is “the primary disinfectant at the plant.”
Tampa Bay Water will also add “more biologically active filters to remove remaining organic molecules” and expand “secondary disinfection chemical systems.”
Molina-Oyola said the initiative is expected to be completed by 2028. It will help meet the region’s drinking water demands through 2033.
Construction efforts are underway. Crews have “completed large-diameter pipe installation and continue work on foundations, filters, pumps, chemical facilities and other critical systems,” according to a post on Tampa Bay Water’s Facebook page.
Prior to receiving the Alternative Water Supply Grant, the organization was awarded $1,016,667 in congressional funding and $1 million in state funding for the project.
“We are thankful to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for granting us this funding opportunity for the Surface Water Treatment Plan expansion,” Molina-Oyola added. “This project will increase our reliability at the site.”
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