St. Petersburg knew for at least 2 years northeast sewage plant was at risk

ST. PETERSBURG — The city of St. Petersburg has known since at least 2022 that its lowest-lying sewage plant could not handle 7 feet of storm surge that Hurricane Helene delivered this week.

The city pulled the plug on the Northeast Water Reclamation Facility at 10:46 p.m. Thursday night, after thousands of households in the city’s most low-lying areas were out of power, flooded and unable to leave. Residents in northeast St. Petersburg, a quarter of the city’s total population, cannot flush the toilet, shower or put anything down the drain for at least 48 hours.

Sewage may back up into people’s homes and create sanitary sewer overflows. For days, Mayor Ken Welch has said the city was anticipating a historic storm surge of 5 to 8 feet. At a news conference Friday morning, Welch said upgrades to the facility began under his administration in 2022.

He said $70 million is being spent on that project that is expected to wrap up in 2026.

”We’ve known for some time that that was the lowest plant since it was built, I think in 1955,” Welch said. “It’s always been susceptible to that amount of unprecedented storm surge. It’s the most storm surge St. Pete has ever had.”

Asked why the city did not give residents a heads up that there was a possibility they wouldn’t have a bathroom to use for two days, Welch said the area was already under a mandatory evacuation zone order. Yet much of the area affected, homes east of Interstate 275 and north of 30th Avenue North, were not under evacuation orders.

Asked how thousands of households are supposed to go to the bathroom, Welch said the city hired a contractor to bring in portable toilets. Emergency manager Amber Boulding said 15 trailers, each with 10 bathrooms, are headed to St. Petersburg. City officials are still trying to determine where they would go.

”The risk has always been there,” Welch said. “We handled it the way we thought was appropriate.”

By the time the city made the call to shutter the sewage plant, Welch was home for the night at his Lakewood Estates home where his plumbing still works. The city communications staff stayed overnight at the emergency operations center housed at the St. Petersburg Police Department. Welch returned back to the emergency operations center at 7:30 a.m. Friday.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.