St. Pete aims to make Southwest Water Reclamation Facility more resilient ahead of future storms

Water facility resiliency after hurricanes

St. Pete was forced to shut down its Southwest Sewer Treatment Plant because of Hurricane Milton. Now, the city has a plan to make it more resilient. Jennifer Kveglis reports.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A City of St. Petersburg thickening expansion project at its Southwest Water Reclamation Facility will also harden its structures from severe weather.

The backstory:

Last year's hurricane season put the City of St. Pete's wastewater facilities to the test. Hurricane Helene flooded its Northeast facility and caused four of its five generators to fail. Crews evacuated its Northeast and Southwest facilities during Hurricane Milton, leaving more than half of the city without the ability to shower or flush toilets for several hours.

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In May, the city announced the new St. Pete Agile Resilience Plan, also known as SPAR. Water Resources Director John Palenchar said it's more like a philosophy than a plan. 

"Being more agile, being more responsive to looking at ways to make projects more resilient while we're doing them," he said. 

During that time, the city's Public Utilities Department announced upgrades were being made. 

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"We have projects up in northeast and northwest plants that will be using deployable barriers and raising critical electrical equipment and generators right now before we see a hurricane this season," Palenchar said. 

Dig deeper:

SPAR is being integrated in the new $13 million Southwest Water Reclamation Facility's Thickening Expansion Project. It is being funded through wastewater rate fees. 

"We're improving the efficiency of treating and drying out the solids after the wastewater is treated," Palenchar explained.

Tuesday at the Sunshine Senior Center in downtown St. Pete, engineers broke down the project and its added resiliency upgrades. 

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"We have this opportunity to take something that's improving a process and at the same time improve its reliability by raising it," he explained. 

The City Water Resources Department is also looking at flood barriers. 

"We've got a couple of different ideas for the Southwest plant. Deployable flood barriers which an Aquafence is one of," Palenchar added. "It has to be site specific. There's no silver bullet and so you have to look at any and all options."

What's next:

The Thickening Expansion Project is expected to be completed in 2027, but crews are assessing resiliency upgrades against this year's hurricane season now.

The City's largest lift station, Station 85, that failed during Hurricane Helene will also see upgrades. 

"We're implementing them right now," Palenchar said. "We have the Aquafence at lift station 85 which is one of our major lift stations. That is being installed and tested right now."