Explore the Plan
Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan for Tampa Bay
Charting the Course is our community’s blueprint for action over a 10-year planning horizon. The plan synthesizes years of scientific research and policies to address the bay’s most pressing problems. It reflects broad-based input from citizens, stakeholders, and communities with a common interest in a healthy bay as the cornerstone of a prosperous economy. Organized around three programmatic priorities, the CCMP presents 16 action plans, 38 actions, and 163 activities needed to sustain progress in bay restoration through the year 2027. It addresses lingering historical challenges – such as reducing nutrient pollution and restoring key habitats – while also turning attention towards new or emerging concerns – such as impacts of climate change.
Click the icons in the map to explore specific action plans.
Goals
Goals: Clean Waters and Sediments
- Reduce or preclude nutrient loadings in the bay from all sources, to meet water quality targets and maintain at least 40,000 acres of seagrass baywide.
- Reduce the frequency and duration of harmful algal blooms
- Reduce the amount of toxic chemicals in contaminated bay sediments and protect relatively clean areas of the bay from contamination
- Reduce pollution from microplastics and emerging contaminants of concern
- Reduce bacterial contamination from sources in the watershed to maintain recreational uses of the bay such as fishing and swimming
Goals: Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife
- Maximize the potential habitat protection and restoration opportunities areas within the Tampa Bay watershed, reaching the following goals for each habitat type by no later than 2050:
- 40,000 acres of seagrass meadows
- 5,457 acres salt marshes
- 471 acres oyster bars 56 miles living shoreline
- 423 acres of hard bottom 18 miles tidal tributaries
- 166 acres artificial reefs 4,219 acres coastal uplands
- 16,200 acres tidal flats 71,787 acres non-forested freshwater wetlands
- 15,300 acres mangrove forests 152,732 acres forested freshwater wetlands
- 796 acres salt barrens 142,100 acres native uplands
- Assess and monitor mitigation of freshwater wetlands, estuarine wetlands, hard bottom and other habitat types
- Enhance ecosystem values of tidal tributaries
- Identify and implement appropriate beneficial uses of dredged material in Tampa Bay Increase on-water enforcement of environmental regulations
- Achieve a sustainable bay scallop population
- Preserve the abundance and diversity of Tampa Bay’s fish and wildlife
- Reduce the risk of oil or chemical spills in the bay and protect high-priority environmentally sensitive areas
- Secure a permanent funding source for the Physical Oceanographic Real Time System (PORTS) of navigational information
- Reduce impacts of existing and potential harmful invasive species in Tampa Bay and its watershed
Goals: Informed, Engaged, Responsible Community
- Foster equitable and appropriate access to the bay and address competing uses
- Create a constituency of informed, involved community members who engage in actions to protect the bay and actively participate in restoring and protecting it.
- Integrate CCMP goals, actions, and priorities in local government comprehensive plans and development guidance
- Assess the effects of climate change on the bay’s ecology and support adaptation actions that promote long-term ecosystem and community resilience
A History of Tampa Bay: Key Milestones in the Restoration of Tampa Bay, 1950–Present
1950s Population
1950s
Population less than 1/4 of today.
1960s Bay Degradation
1960s
Bay degradation is recognized.
EPCHC established 1967
1967
Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County (EPCHC) established.
EPA CWA 1972
1972
EPA Clean Water Act approved. Florida’s Wilson-Grizzle Act requires wastewater plants discharging to Tampa Bay to upgrade to Advanced Wastewater Treatment (AWT), or enact 100% reclaimed.
Save Our Bay
1970s
Save Our Bays and other citizen groups call for legislative action to reduce pollution discharges.
WWTP
1979
City of Tampa’s Howard F. Curren Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) achieves AWT standard, reduces nitrogen loadings by 90%. City of St Petersburg implements 100% reclaimed water from their direct discharge, with similar reductions. Other WWTPs in the region implement nutrient reductions.
Stormwater Rule 1982
1982
Statewide Stormwater Rule is enacted, requiring nutrient management from municipal stormwater systems.
BASIS Symposium 1982
1982
The first Bay Area Science Information Symposium (BASIS) is conducted by the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council.
Future of Tampa Bay
1985
The Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council convenes the region to develop the Future of Tampa Bay report, including specific actions to reduce pollution and recover habitats in Tampa Bay. The Agency on Bay Management is established to support the report’s recommendations.
SWIM
1987
The State’s Water Management Districts establish Surface Water Implementation and Management (SWIM) programs to restore and protect priority water bodies within each District. Tampa Bay is identified as the Southwest Florida Water Management District’s priority water body.
NEP Designation
1991
Tampa Bay is recognized by EPA as an “estuary of national significance” and the Tampa Bay National Estuary Program is created to develop a Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan.
CCMP Approved
1996
TBNEP’s CCMP is approved by local partners, the Governor, and the EPA Administrator. Numeric goals for habitat restoration and water quality improvement are adopted.
TBNMC Formed
1996
The public/private Tampa Bay Nitrogen Management Consortium (TBNMC) is formed to assist in meeting nitrogen management targets needed to meet seagrass goals.
Partnership for Progress
1998
The TBNMC develops the Partnership for Progress plan to meet nutrient management targets.
TBEP ILA
1998
An Interlocal Agreement between the TBNEP partners forms a new Independent Special District of the State of Florida, the Tampa Bay Estuary Program. TBEP partners commit to implementing projects to assist in meeting numeric goals, and to support a funding schedule.
Water Quality Targets Met
2006
First year that all bay segments achieve TBEP water quality targets
TN Limits
2009
TBNMC develops voluntary nutrient loading limits for all sources, to continue to meet water quality targets. Federal and state regulatory agencies adopt limits to meet regulatory requirements.
Seagrass Goal
2014
Tampa Bay surpasses seagrass recovery goal of 38,800 acres.
Peak Seagrass
2016
Surveys show continued seagrass increases to 41,655 acres.
HMP
2020
The Habitat Master Plan adopts a “Maximizing the Potential” paradigm for Tampa Bay habitat protection and restoration based on what is possible today and projected future needs. This replaces the original “Restoring the Balance” paradigm of replicating past ecological conditions, which may no longer be possible.
Piney Point
2021
Approximately 215 million gallons of wastewater from Piney Point were released into Tampa Bay, delivering about a year’s worth of total nitrogen (~205 tons) to Lower Tampa Bay over a ten-day period.
Seagrass Loss
2018-2022
Since reaching a high of 41,655 acres of seagrass in 2016, Tampa Bay experienced seagrass losses for three consecutive mapping assessment periods, dipping to 30,137 acres. Most of the losses occurred in the Old Tampa Bay segment.