News about the low water pressure.

As you are all aware we have been battling low water pressure throughout the community for some time now. Once this issue began, we started inspecting our infrastructure, from beginning to end, to determine if the problem was here within the community. As part of that inspection, we found that our control valves for the water needed to be replaced, so we made that improvement to the water system. Other than that, no issues were found that could cause low pressure.

Throughout all of this, I have been in contact with the County to advise them of the issue and to work towards a resolution.

Yesterday I had a conversation with Hillsborough County Water and here is what they believe is happening and what they will be doing to fix it...

The County has 2 main Water pumping stations. One in Tampa and one in Lithia (which is the station that provides us with water). In order to handle the increase in need for water throughout the County, a change was made in how much each station would be pumping out. The Lithia Station's output was decreased. It appears that this decrease is cause of our issue. We are required by law to have what is called a "Backflow Preventer" on our main line entering StrawBerry Ridge. This piece of equipment prevents water from backflowing into the county's line, but it also decreases water pressure. When the County made the change in how much each station would pump, the important detail of the Backflow Preventer was overlooked.

The fix is not just as simple as increasing the flow from the Lithia station, they must have the data to make the correction works throughout the county. So the County has installed Flow meters in StrawBerry Ridge and Taho Woods. Once enough data is collected and if it supports this conclusion, then they will be making a change. There is no timeline yet on when that will occur. In the meantime, there is no need to report low pressure issues to us or the county, we are all working towards the resolution.

I will update everyone as more information becomes available.

Keith W. Stevens
General Manager