About $40 million is budgeted for the next five years. In Manatee, officials say they are constantly working to upgrade and rehab decades-old infrastructure that can be vulnerable to breaks and spills. The facility is expected to open by the end of 2025. In Sarasota, progress continues on the $210 million Bee Ridge Water Treatment Plant, designed to drastically reduce releases of compounds harmful to Sarasota Bay’s health.

One of the first signs of good news for the system that extends from Tampa Bay to Venice was recent word from state regulators that four southern sections – Little Sarasota Bay, Roberts Bay, Blackburn Bay and a portion of Sarasota Bay – were proposed for removal from a list of impaired waterways.Įnvironmental experts and county leaders, though, aren’t taking the initial encouraging developments as a sign their work is done. Sarasota Bay’s water quality has begun improving, though threats remain from warming sea temperatures, stormwater runoff and the legacy of more than 200 million gallons of polluted waste released from the Piney Point phosphate plant in 2021, officials say.

Bay 101 open 2017