Lightning In a Bottle

Unless you have lived around Tampa Bay for decades, it’s hard to imagine the water wars that plagued the region in the 1990s.

The region relied solely on groundwater from wellfields, but increasing demand driven by population growth as well as severe drought and development caused water levels in lakes and wetlands to drop, damaging the environment and threatening the quality of life and economic future. Local governments spent millions fighting lawsuits against each other before forward-looking public officials agreed to work together to find a solution that would be fair to everyone.

Watch this documentary to learn about the problem, the pressures and the people that worked together to catch Lightning in a Bottle, creating a regional solution and writing Tampa Bay’s greatest environmental success story that has benefited the region for the past 25 years.