Potential sewage plant solutions include a massive wall

Storm-hardening two of St. Petersburg’s wastewater treatment facilities shuttered during recent hurricanes was a prominent topic at a recent City Council meeting.

Administrators will consider any innovative storm resiliency solutions amid increasingly severe extreme weather events. Efforts to elevate the Northeast Water Reclamation Facility – rendered useless during Hurricanes Helene and Milton – are underway.

The most vulnerable sewage treatment plant in St. Petersburg can withstand a seven-foot storm surge, which the city had never experienced before Helene. A $70 million project will increase that threshold to 11 feet, two feet above the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s flood elevation.

However, meteorologists expected Milton to inundate the area with a 12-to15-foot wall of water. At the Dec. 5 city council meeting, Claude Tankersley, public works director, said the estimated storm surge for a Category 5 hurricane is between 25 and 42 feet.

“If we were to raise the plant to be safe under 42 feet of a storm surge – that’s probably not feasible,” Tankersley said. “We probably couldn’t afford to do that, and I’m sure the surrounding neighborhoods probably wouldn’t like to see a four-story wastewater treatment plant right next to them.”

Tankersley said city officials must discuss the most feasible approaches to protecting sewage facilities “where they are.” Waterbodies surround the northeast plant, the city’s lowest-lying, at 1160 62^nd Ave. NE.

The Southwest Water Reclamation Facility – also shuttered during Milton – can withstand an 11-foot storm surge. The plant at 3800 54th Ave. S. abuts wetlands that lead to Tampa Bay.

City officials shuttered the Southwest Water Reclamation Facility during Hurricane Milton. Photo: Water Collaborative Delivery Association.

The city lacks the developable land needed to relocate its sewage treatment plants to higher ground. Tankersley noted that the base elevations for the two facilities are between five and seven feet.

He said Pensacola officials purchased about 25 acres of vacant property 15 miles north of the city’s core to build a new treatment plant after Hurricane Ivan decimated the Panhandle in 2004. “Then they had to build a bunch of pipelines to pump all that sewage in the opposite direction … and it cost them close to half a billion dollars.”

“Unfortunately, we don’t really have that opportunity,” Tankesley added. “It’s just one of the things that makes our resilience different than another community.”

The city’s conundrum will likely require an outside-of-the-box approach. Councilmember Lisset Hanewicz asked if administrators considered perimeter flood barriers.

Tampa General Hospital recently made headlines for implementing an AquaFence, a temporary impermeable barrier, around its island facility during recent storms. However, it can only withstand a 15-foot storm surge.

“One of the options thrown to us at one point was to build a wall around the plants,” Tankersley said. “That has its own challenges, and it can be very costly. But it’s certainly something we would consider as part of our cost-benefit analysis.”

Roughly two-thirds of St. Petersburg depends on the vulnerable sewage treatment plants to flush toilets, bathe and wash clothes. While running water remains accessible during outages, officials urge residents and businesses not to drain sinks or tubs.

Failure to heed those warnings could cause extensive raw sewage overflows. The northeast plant leaked over one million gallons into surrounding neighborhoods and waterbodies when officials took it offline during Helene.

Hanewicz said she heard that hospitals could not flush toilets during the recent storms. City Administrator Rob Gerdes disagreed with that assessment.

Tankersley said officials raised critical electrical equipment at the southwest facility to 12 feet above sea level. That work is ongoing at the northeast plant, and he expects the storm-hardening project to conclude in 2026.

“However, I will say we are trying to find ways to accelerate that so we can get it done sooner,” Tankersley said. “But I cannot make that promise at this time.”

Plant operators wait until the last minute to shut down the plants and flee the area. The fire department used high-water vehicles to rescue workers stranded by rapidly rising floodwaters during Helene.

In April, council members approved an initiative to storm-harden operations and maintenance buildings at the city’s three water reclamation facilities. While the city recently secured about $9 million in state funding to complete the design phase, Tankersley said construction would not commence until 2027.

Funding remains the most significant hurdle to myriad planned environmental resiliency projects in St. Petersburg. Councilmember Gina Driscoll said it is “time to get more aggressive” in the city’s pursuit of federal dollars “because there is money out there for such things.”