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Over 400,000 gallons of wastewater spewed in St. Pete
Editors note: This story has been updated with new information.
City officials have announced that Hurricane Debby caused several manholes throughout St. Petersburg to discharge hundreds of thousands of gallons of untreated wastewater.
Over 429,000 gallons spilled into four neighborhoods in north-central areas of the city from Aug. 5 through Aug. 6. A Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) pollution report states that all discharges ceased by 6:48 p.m. Tuesday.
City officials offered a public notice at around 9 p.m. Wednesday, two days after the leaks began, via social media. St. Petersburg’s official Facebook page called the post an “update.” However, there is no evidence of any initial notifications.
Multiple city council members could not immediately be reached for comment. Several scheduled committee meetings began at 8 a.m. Thursday, less than 11 hours after the administration’s Facebook post. Alizza Punzalan-Randle, managing director for communications, provided an extensive official statement at 12:33 p.m.
She said the city established a wastewater discharge process in 2017 to promote public transparency. In addition to notifying the FDEP, officials post discharge notifications online and issue social media alerts. “The city’s marketing and communications team makes every effort to comply with its own protocols.”
“The city has spent more than $400 million improving wastewater collection, treatment and disposal systems since 2016 as part of an FDEP consent order,” Punzalan-Randle added. “These improvements significantly reduced the potential impacts of Hurricane Debby on the wastewater system and likely prevented larger sanitary sewer overflows.”
She noted that Debby dumped 10.34 inches of rain on the city within 30 hours, an “unusual event.” That level of precipitation has not occurred in 48 hours since September 1997.
Punzalan-Randle said the wastewater system was “not accustomed to experiencing these atypical rainfall levels over a short period …” While the discharges entered drainage canals and ditches, she stressed it did not “directly enter any recreational bodies of water.”
The spills could have been worse, as city crews caught about 120,000 gallons with tanker trucks. However, over 152,000 gallons reached local waterways.
The most extensive leak occurred around the 800 block of 53rd Avenue N. Approximately 185,040 gallons of untreated wastewater from 11 manholes inundated the surrounding area.
“Of this, 34,000 was recovered from the ground, and 151,040 gallons of the wastewater mixed with floodwater and entered the 54th Ave. N./Dr. MLK St. N. Canal,” states the notification. “Crews were also able to prevent an additional 34,000 gallons from discharging by capturing (it) with tanker trucks before it reached the ground.”
Wastewater includes sewage and can contain harmful nutrients – like nitrogen and phosphorous – organic matter, pathogens and inorganic contaminants. A city website states, “St. Petersburg protects the health and safety of its residents by safely and efficiently disposing of wastewater through the city’s sewer system.”
Another 152,050 gallons of wastewater spewed from 10 manholes around the 6000 block of 22nd Avenue North. That entered a ditch at the intersection of 58th St. N. City crews prevented 94,000 gallons from escaping the area or soaking into the ground.
Approximately 62,100 gallons of untreated confluence discharged from three manholes on the 800 block of 53rd Avenue North. That entered nearby Shore Lake.
A relatively smaller leak, 30,000 gallons, discharged from two manholes around the 6600 block of 34th Avenue North. That wastewater is now in Miles Creek.
Ivy Drexler, senior water resources manager, wrote that “94,000 gallons were suctioned from downstream and spilling manholes to help relieve some of the overflowing manholes mentioned in the report” in a final update to the FDEP. She added that crews monitored and vacuumed manholes to “relieve low points” in the wastewater collection system.
Drexler stated that the total “spill volume to surface waters” was 152,050 gallons. Cleanup efforts included vacuum and pump trucks. The report notes that crews “washed down” affected areas and posted signs.
A local water pollution reporting map highlights several recent incidents (yellow) and areas unfit to swim (red). Screengrab.
Treatment facility issues
City officials may have had an advanced warning of impending discharges. A Southwest Water Reclamation Facility tank leaked 229,165 gallons of wastewater Sunday, Aug. 4.
A website credited the extensive leak to “inclement weather from Tropical Storm Debby.” However, “the spill was captured by onsite lift stations, which diverted the spill back to the head of the plant for treatment” before it reached local waterways.
A subsequent treated water sample exceeded the total suspended solid limit of five milligrams per liter. Another 3,000 gallons of partially treated wastewater was discharged from the facility Aug. 5 due to a “temporarily malfunctioning isolation valve as an impact of Hurricane Debby.”
After treatment, the sampled water still had 75 milligrams of suspended solids per liter – 15 times the maximum allotment.
“The cause of the water quality exceedance was extreme flow from Hurricane Debby,” states the website. “A portion of the treated water was captured and stored in reject water tanks for future treatment. The remainder went down the deep injection wells. Since these samples are taken once per day, the facility was considered to be out of compliance for approximately 24 hours.”
S. Rose Smith-Hayes
August 9, 2024at7:23 pm
No surprise here. Please stop building new apartments and condos. 1500 are planned near us and I am terrified.
Smitty
August 9, 2024at3:10 pm
Do you expect me to believe none of this made it into the Gulf ? The city lies about this everytime it happens. When in the hell are we going to fix this dam problem ? Our Gulf is died because of thing like this. I remember how great the fishing off the beach used to be. This state have allowed big biz and city to get away with what they have done to our Gulf. Sickening, disgusting and criminal!
David Nixon
August 9, 2024at8:38 am
Hey mayor why dont you fix your infrastructure now so your residents can live in an uncontaminated county and our waterways are not red tide waterways especially Joe’s creek
Rbruce
August 9, 2024at7:05 am
Look on the bright side of life – St Pete City Hall knows how to spend money on rainbow flags, street murals, colorful cargo nets, and parades. City won’t let a little sewage interfere with the special group of the month celebrations.
JudyToo
August 8, 2024at10:40 pm
Elections have consequences. We voted for the mayor and city council. They voted for the Rays giveaway. And more development than the infrastructure can handle.
They did not let us vote on the corporate welfare given to the Rays and their crony developers.
When are we going to learn?
Brooke
August 8, 2024at5:32 pm
I know for a fact that the City of St Petersburg has been trying to tackle the infrastructure problems for years. Many FDEP citations and all. A few questions arise tho. After all these years, why is Claude T.still the boss? Many years ago he was caught lying to city council and the press about the spills back then, and…. The next question is why is the City still approving plans for large buildings and developments, when the sewage problem continues?
Charlotte Ray
August 8, 2024at5:30 pm
Ok here we go. With all the new houses and condos being built has taken the place of runoff. There is no other place for the water to go. Except in the sewers and when those areas get full this is what happens. This is BIOLOGICAL true. Stay tuned there is more to come. IJS
Moe
August 8, 2024at4:59 pm
This WILL become a regular occurrence due to city allowing more building, high rises, zero lot lines, increased population. We are doomed. What is needed is a huge water/ sewer treatment facility @ Tropicana Field & send the Rays elsewhere.
Lauren Lopez
August 8, 2024at4:56 pm
City Council and Mayor…total fail. Not that you care. Quit building more more more and fix what is here now. I want to see a moratorium on building and quit encouraging more people to move here. You have ruined this city….same thing happened in Asheville NC. Shame Shame Shame.
Odessa Jackson
August 8, 2024at4:35 pm
If people have enough money to live in those shitty areas then they should have enough money to clean up the shit..why keep asking the city for help..in other words the tax payers.. another scam.. white people write the rules but never want to play by them…wtf
Tim K
August 8, 2024at3:58 pm
How come so many areas in the bay had high bacteria levels before the storm how could we explain that our outdated sewage system is inundated with just daily sewage we don’t need a storm to make it overflow but again let’s build another 50 story building on top of 100-year-old infrastructure genius
Rob
August 8, 2024at3:46 pm
Saint Pete residents have to drink and bathe in human waste but at least we have the new Rays stadium to comfort us. Why are we spending ANY money on our failing wastewater and stormwater infrastructure? We could be giving that money to the Rays! The Rays need more handouts and corporate welfare. The citizens of Saint Pete are being selfish by not giving them more. We could all do our part and drink more human waste so the Rays can have more of our money and land. C’mon people! Pitch in and do your part. Drink more waste!