A Florida city famous for its water worries that it might run out of it

In this fast-growing Florida city, water seemingly abounds.

It’s in the Zephyrhills plastic bottles filled from the community’s sparkling springs and sold in supermarkets nationwide. It glistens from a lake surrounded by trees and park benches. And it flows from a clover-shaped fountain outside city hall.

But as the “City of Pure Water” experiences a population boom, officials here are warning that the vital resource is increasingly in short supply. The population of Zephyrhills has skyrocketed over the past decade, and the surrounding Pasco County area outside Tampa is now one of Florida’s most popular destinations for new arrivals. Faced with a spike in demand, officials recognized that even a city famed for its water can’t keep up.

So, in June, the Zephyrhills City Council passed a one-year moratorium on approving new construction, hoping to flatten the city’s water usage after it came dangerously close to hitting the maximum allowance this year.

“We need to pump the brakes and get the developers to slow down,” said Ken Burgess, a council member and building contractor. “Let us just take a breath.”

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