Tampa Bay Bypass Canal

(Satellite, one of the two overflows into the drainage canal; Satellite, the other canal inlet; Satellite, the outlet to McKay Bay)

A posting of a link to a WTSP article about the Tampa Bay Bypass Canal

In response to the flooding caused by the 1960 Hurricane Donna, the US Army Core of Engineers (USACE) built a dam. But to avoid flooding homes upstream of the dam, they also created (bought) the 16,000 acre Lower Hillsborough Wilderness Preserve. The USACE was originally going to build a structural reservoir. But as the value of natural wetlands came to be understood for flood storage and wildlife conservation, they went with a more natural solution for water retention and created a wetlands. The Southwest Florida Water Management District manages the wetlands as a recreational resource. The adjacent 3000 acre Hillsborough River State Park provides further water storage.

SWFWMD

The bypass canal was built to handle rains that exceed the storage capacity of the wetlands. It is also managed as a recreational resource.

Satellite

I had trouble finding the flood gates shown in the photo at the top of these notes. That is because I searched from the upstream ends of the canal. If I had searched from the bay, I would have quickly found this one.

Satellite

And I also found this one. A Google search about the canal finds information on fishing in the canal. But I could not find any information on why there are gates in the canal. Then I remembered two words: "storm surge." As a hurricane approaches land, the gates would be closed to keep the higher water in the bays from flowing inland. Then, when the hurricane moves on land, the surge would go back down. But that is when the hurricane would drop a lot of rain on the area. So the flood gates would be opened to let the excessive rain flow to the bay that has now returned to a normal sea level.