Tampa waterfront homeowners urged to check backyard tidal creeks before hurricane season

Health of our creeks during hurricane season

Water experts in Tampa are urging homeowners to check local backyard tidal creeks as hurricane season begins to help protect the region from severe flooding and water pollution. FOX 13's Ariel Plasencia reports.

TAMPA, Fla - Water experts in Tampa are urging homeowners to check local backyard tidal creeks as hurricane season begins to help protect the region from severe flooding and water pollution.

Tampa tidal creek studies

What we know:

The Tampa Bay Estuary Program actively monitors about half of the 200-plus tidal creeks located within the Tampa Bay watershed. Gathering regular water quality samples across every single creek remains a major logistical challenge for local scientists.

"I think scientists will always tell you that we want data on everything," Maya Burke, assistant director of the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, told FOX 13. "And so they would love to see all of the 200-plus creeks within the Tampa Bay watershed being studied."

Estuary dashboard tracking

By the numbers:

An online dashboard allows residents to track nearby water quality, highlighting 10 specific creek systems that are currently prioritized for environmental action. On the digital map, red creeks require nutrient reductions, green creeks maintain healthy nitrogen levels, and blue creeks lack available data. 

A public dashboard map shows monitored waterways across the region, color-coding prioritized systems in red, healthy creeks in green, and data-deficient zones in blue.

"We have about 10 creeks that are really prioritized for action, and it's really challenging to help improve water quality even on those 10 systems," Burke explained. "And so I would say we should focus our energy on improving those systems where we know that there are challenges. And once we address those water quality problems there, then we can move on to collecting data in other systems."

Natural flood protections

The backstory:

These coastal waterways serve as vital natural defenses by filtering out harmful pollution, providing critical fish habitats, and offering natural flood protection. Restoring these systems allows them to slow down and clean storm runoff before it reaches the open bay.

"If we wanted to see water quality be more resilient to those kinds of storms, restoring these tidal creeks is an important part of doing that because instead of delivering the water as fast as possible with all of that pollution with it to the bay, these tidal creeks are able to hold the water back, treat it along the way, and then control the timing and delivery of the water to the bay in a way that is good for people, for fish, and for wildlife."

Deep floodwaters submerge a neighborhood street and lawns near a stop sign, highlighting the community risks present as hurricane season begins in Florida.

Unknown water quality levels

What we don't know:

Officials do not have water quality data for the remaining half of the tidal creeks in the watershed. It is unclear how long it will take to expand testing resources to the systems currently marked in blue on the public dashboard.

Backyard stream restoration steps

What you can do:

Residents with creeks on their property can replace hard concrete or plastic seawalls with winding channels and native plants. Creating a two-stage system with a higher, wider secondary bank provides optimal neighborhood flood safety.

"A lot of times when people have creeks in their backyard, it's really straight. It's got almost like seawalls — super hard, either concrete or plastic, kind of corrugated along those edges. And what we would really like to see is a narrow and winding kind of channel that has lots of different plants. Those plants are important to provide hiding spots for fish and also those plants are taking up all of the nutrient pollution that's in the water along the way," Burke said. "And ideally, you'll also create sort of a two-stage kind of system where not only do you have that winding narrow part, but you have a higher and wider section of the stream. We call it a two-stage system. And that is where you can get the extra kinds of flood protection."