News & Public Affairs
Tampa water department hashes half million dollar plan to avoid power failures listen
05/16/13 Janelle IrwinWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Tampa, water, power, Tampa City Council, water boil
A water boil alert that went out to more than a half million Tampa residents in February was the result of a domino effect of electrical problems that all started with a squirrel chewing through a power line. The power outage meant part of the city’s water supply could have been tainted and left residents and restaurants scrounging for bottled water and ice for 37 hours.
During a Tampa City Council meeting Thursday, Brad Baird, director of the city’s water department laid out a half mil...
Be the first to commentClearwater breaks ground on second reverse osmosis plant listen
05/06/13 Samuel JohnsonWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: water, desalination, reverse osmosis, Clearwater, aquifer, reclaimed water
This morning the City of Clearwater broke ground on its second reverse osmosis municipal water treatment plant to get drinking water from brackish water. Nearly 100 people gathered in a vacant lot to listen to government officials commemorate the new construction. When the second water treatment plant is finished Clearwater will be able to produce almost 100% of its drinking water.
The official name of the plant is the Reverse Osmosis #2 Brackish Water Treatment Plant; or RO2 in governmen...
Be the first to commentCleaning up dirty water can create energy listen
03/27/13 Janelle IrwinWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: waste water, water, clean water, USF, sustainability, numeric nutrient standards, EPA
Researchers at the University of South Florida showed off their work with waste water and other testing technologies to officials from the Environmental Protection Agency. During lab tours today, Professor Daniel Yeh demonstrated how the water that gets dumped, flushed or otherwise thrown out can be put to better use.
Be the first to comment“If you can just re-route the electrodes that’s built into the waste organic matter, we can actually turn the waste organic matter into methane which is basically natural g...
Tampa Bay Estuary Program announces which ecosystem restoration programs it would like to see funded from BP oil disaster money listen
03/12/13 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Tampa Bay Estuary Program, water, pollution, BP oil disaster, BP, Gulf oil spill, BP oil spill, restoration, environment, Tampa Bay
The Gulf Coast will get millions of dollars for ecosystem restoration as part of fines resulting from the 2010 BP oil disaster.
A partnership of estuary protection groups and local communities has come up with a list of environmental improvement projects they hope will be funded.
One of the partners is the Tampa Bay Estuary Program and Holly Greening is their executive director.
Be the first to comment"Last year Congress approved the Restore Act, last July. That act allows 80 percent of the Clean Water ...
Update on timeline of last week's water pressure failure and boil water notice in Tampa listen
02/28/13 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Thursday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: water, City of Tampa, Tampa, Tampa City Council, TECO
Last Friday the City of Tampa lost power to a water treatment plant.
It caused a loss of pressure and a precautionary boil water notice that lasted until Sunday morning.
Thursday morning Tampa City Council members heard a revised timeline of how the problem developed from Tampa Water Department director Brad Baird, beginning with what happened after a squirrel chewed through a power supply line and the water treatment plant had to draw all of is electricity from a second power line.
Be the first to commentAll four regions of Tampa Bay met water quality standards in 2012 listen
02/20/13 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: water, Tampa Bay, Tampa Bay Estuary Program, nitrogen, fertilizer, pollution, seagrass, fertilizer ordinance
The water quality in Tampa Bay continues to improve.
Tuesday the Tampa Bay Estuary Program released results of their 2012 water quality survey and for the fourth time since assessments began in 1974 all geographic regions of the bay met quality targets.
Ed Sherwood is senior scientist at Tampa Bay Estuary Program.
Be the first to commentWNMF wins Water Wise award
02/04/13 Jon ButtsSustainable Living and Alternative Health Listen to this entire show:
Tags: agriculture, farming, gardening, urban farming IFAS, water
On today’s WMNF 88.5 FM Sustainable Living program we started with a short interview about the upcoming (February 9th) Urban Small to Large Farm Conference that takes place at the Pinellas County Extension Service, on 12520 Ulmerton Rd in Largo. Robert Kluson, the Sarasota Vegetable Extension Agent, filled us in on the details. He'll be teaching Chickens 101 at Saturday's conference. We spent the remainder of the show talking with a couple of WMNF volunteers, Paul & Gail Carroll that were ins...
Be the first to commentTimes report points to flaws in Florida's aquifer water flow model listen
01/28/13 Seán KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Craig Pittman, Tampa Bay Times, karst, water, aquifer, Floridan aquifer
The model that Florida regulators use to issue water pumping permits is likely to severely underestimate the rate of water flow in the aquifer because of a type of geology called 'karst.'
According to an article in Monday's Tampa Bay Times by reporter Craig Pittman, that could be contributing to pollution and low flow of springs in the state.
The story is ca...
Be the first to commentTampa Bay Water will appeal reservoir lawsuit they lost listen
06/20/12 Samuel JohnsonWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Tampa Bay Water, reservoir, water
On Monday in Clearwater the Tampa Bay Water board of directors voted to appeal a lawsuit they lost against the company they feel is responsible for the cracks in the region's failed reservoir. The board met in private with legal counsel for a little over one hour before making the decision.
Tampa Bay Water lost its lawsuit against HDR Engineering in April. The region's water utility claims HDR is responsible for cracks in the [C.W. B...
Be the first to commentUNESCO water conference at USF emphasizes sustainability listen
05/25/12 Janelle IrwinWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: USF, Global Sustainability, water, Tampa Bay Water, UNESCO IHE
A group of researchers is coming up with ways to make sure that people in the Tampa Bay area and throughout the world continue to have enough usable water. During an international research institute conference at USF this week, water experts mulled ways to keep water from becoming a scarce commodity.
Tampa Bay Water’s water quality assurance officer Christine Owen said the region’s water deficit until 2009 was more than 70 million gallons. Now they are implementing ways of getting more w...
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