TAMPA BAY TIMES
By Claude Tankersley, St. Petersburg public works administrator
ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. — The city of St. Petersburg has spent the past 10 months focusing on the sewage system’s failings—and to good effect. Working together, our city administration, elected officials, staff and community stakeholders have established a master plan to address the long-term viability of our sewer system. As our challenges are chronic, our goal has been to plan for the next 100 years and not just for the next possible event.
Mayor Rick Kriseman’s charge has been clear: Do it right.
Since last summer’s unusual rain event and this summer’s tropical storm — both declared states of emergency by Gov. Rick Scott — we mobilized a dedicated team of management staff, plant operators, maintenance staff, engineering consultants, state regulators and civic groups to chart a course forward.
So what did we accomplish between states of emergency? A lot. We now have an expert-backed comprehensive solution, vetted by our community and approved by our city council.
We have already begun the work, which includes but is not limited to:
- Lining 60,000 feet of leaky pipes in just the past 10 months.
- Initiating in-pipe data collection to identify the leakiest sections of our 5 million feet of sewer pipe so that we can tactically target our pipelining program.
- Allocating an additional $8 million per year ($80 million over the next 10 years) to line the appropriate leaky pipes.
- Beginning the permitting and design of an additional $35 million expansion of the Southwest wastewater treatment plant from 20 million gallons per day treatment capacity to 50 million gallons per day. This expansion will also give the plant the ability to handle short duration peak flows of 70 million gallons.