$60M in infrastructure upgrades to St. Pete facility to protect sewage system from future hurricanes
Students tour water reclamation facility
The city of St. Petersburg has poured more than $60M in upgrades at the Northeast Water Reclamation facility and a group of students got to tour it on Monday and see how it works. FOX 13’s Kailey Tracy reports.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - St. Petersburg officials have finished more than $60 million in infrastructure upgrades at the Northeast Water Reclamation Facility to safeguard the city's sewage system from future hurricane storm surges.
St. Petersburg plant upgrades
What we know:
Crews finished tens of millions of dollars in upgrades at the Northeast Water Reclamation Facility in May, according to St. Petersburg Public Works Administrator Claude Tankersley. The project successfully elevated critical electrical equipment to 15 feet above sea level.
Tankersley said a seven-foot flood during Hurricane Helene brought two to three feet of water onto the campus, threatening electrical components. Raising the equipment ensures the plant can stay operational if another storm surge like Helene hits the area.
The upgrades also replaced old, deteriorated equipment with modern infrastructure, added three new emergency generators, and improved distribution pumps. Workers also constructed a deep injection wall to expand capacity for treated reclaimed water disposal.
Tankersley noted that planning began years ago and construction started in 2022. Hurricane Milton's storm surge also forced officials to shut down the plant, leaving more than half the city without sewage services during both storms.
Local perspective:
A group of 50 local middle and high school students toured the upgraded Northeast Plant Monday to see the infrastructure firsthand.
"It’s important," student Aliyah Smith said. "We need it. So, it's good to learn about it."
Meanwhile, the state gave St. Petersburg $2 million toward a new $24 million pump station near Denver Street Northeast, between North Dakota Avenue Northeast and Pennsylvania Avenue Northeast.
Future resilience projects
What's next:
Crews plan to raise the Northeast operations building to 28 feet so it can withstand Category 5 hurricane winds. Similar upgrades are already underway at the Southwest Plant, and officials plan to renovate a third plant within the next three to five years.
The projects are part of the St. Pete Agile Resilience plan. A $600 million bond will go before voters on the ballot this fall, which city officials say would double the number of resiliency projects crews can complete in five years.
The project is designed to speed up drainage and reduce flooding for more than 350 structures. Tankersley said the city will eventually install four pump stations costing about $100 million over the next five years, with construction on the Denver Street project expected to start in the next two years.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered from St. Petersburg Public Works Administrator Claude Tankersley, who detailed the infrastructure upgrades and future flood mitigation plans.