Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Plant Tour
Sunday, May 23, 2010
3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Fee: $45
The Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Plant is currently the largest operating seawater desalination plant in North America. The 30,000 square-foot plant is located on 8.5 acres next to Tampa Electric's Big Bend Power Station in Apollo Beach, which already withdraws and discharges up to 1.4 billion gallons a day of seawater from Tampa Bay for cooling water. The plant is designed to divert approximately 44 million gallons a day (mgd) from Tampa Electric's power plant cooling system. Upon entering the desal plant, the water goes through a rigorous pretreatment process. Then, the reverse osmosis process separates 25 mgd of freshwater from seawater. The remaining 19 mgd of concentrated seawater is blended back into the power plant's cooling system before being returned to the Bay.
The Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Plant is an important part of the Tampa Bay region's water supply, providing up to 10% of the region's drinking water needs. Fully operational since December 2007, this facility provides a sustainable, environmentally friendly, drought-proof supply of drinking water for Tampa Bay Water member governments' utility customers.