New Port Richey Residents Upset, Even More Water Pumping Could Come From Pasco For Other Counties

The regional water utility serving Tampa Bay is searching places they've already used up for fresh potable water, and that means wells in New Port Richey could eventually feel the hit.

Tampa Bay Water is again thinking about drilling into Pasco County's aquifer to relieve the area's expanding population and demand for fresh water over the course of the next ten years. A two year study is in place.

Private land near StarkeyPhoto byAbandonedReclamation

They are currently talking about either constructing a new wellfield in northeastern Pasco County or asking the state water management district for approval to boost pumping at current wellfields. This would break a 25-year trend of reducing withdrawals in Pasco County due to dangerously low lake levels and dry wetlands from past overpumping. According to the Southwest Florida Water Management District, the lakes and wetlands in the area have recovered from the harm caused by previous pumping operations, but residents aren't so sure.

Mayor Chopper Davis of additional Port Richey stated, "We're going to need the wells," referring to the possible construction of thousands of additional homes in central and eastern Pasco County. "The majority of the water will probably be needed there."

Egrets near Werner-BoycePhoto byAbandonedReclamation

Tampa Bay Water is also thinking of purifying and storing water from the Alafia River in Hillsborough, a canal that runs downstream from Lake Tarpon in north Pinellas, and the Little Manatee River and Bull Frog Creek in south Hillsborough. Extending the current desalination plant and injecting recovered water underground to balance water collected from a new wellfield in south Hillsborough are two other ideas that have been investigated but not authorized.

According to the most recent data available, Tampa Bay Water provides 202 million gallons of drinking water every day to 2.5 million people in Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco counties as well as the cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg, and New Port Richey. Of that total, the company pumps 86 million gallons of well water per day.

The three main wellfields in Pasco County, Cypress Creek, Cross Bar, and Starkey, used to pump 73 million gallons of water per day, but that amount has since dropped to about 30 million gallons per day, according to Tampa Bay Water's chief science officer, Warren Hogg.

Tidal wetlandsPhoto byAbandonedReclamation

According to the plans, a new wellfield would be able to extract up to 9 million gallons of fresh or brackish water per day from northeast Pasco. Alternatively, the water district would be asked for approval to boost daily pumping from the existing wellfields by 10 million gallons.

You can keep an eye on upcoming Pasco County BOCC meetings to voice your opinion on the matter here.

How do you feel about increasing pumping of Pasco's aquifer to to meet the needs of other counties? Let us know in the comments below!