desalination plant facts

• The Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Plant is designed to produce up to 25 million gallons per day (mgd) of drinking water.
• The plant can be expanded in the future to produce 35 mgd.
• The 30,000 square-foot plant is located on 8.5 acres of Tampa Electric’s Big Bend power plant in Apollo Beach.
• The facility uses reverse osmosis to produce drinking water from the saltwater in Tampa Bay.
• The plant uses approximately 44 mgd of seawater to produce 25 mgd of freshwater, leaving 19 mgd of concentrated seawater.
• The concentrated seawater is directed back to the power plant, mixed with up to 1.4 billion gallons of cooling water and returned to the Bay.
• Monitoring shows no measurable changes in salinity in Tampa Bay, even when the plant is fully operating.
• The desalinated water is blended with less expensive water supplies such as groundwater, making this alternative supply more affordable.
• The total cost of the plant and the 15-mile pipeline that connects it to the water system was $158 million.
• As part of a Partnership Agreement, the Southwest Florida Water Management District reimbursed Tampa Bay Water $85 million of the plant’s capital costs.
• The cost of water produced at the plant is competitive with other similar-sized plants operating around the world.