St. Petersburg has completed more than $60 million in upgrades at its Northeast Water Reclamation Facility, aimed at protecting the city’s sewage system from the kind of storm surge that has repeatedly knocked the plant offline.
Crews finished the work in May, according to St. Petersburg Public Works Administrator Claude Tankersley. The project raised critical electrical equipment to 15 feet above sea level after Hurricane Helene sent a seven-foot flood surge onto the campus, pushing two to three feet of water into the facility and threatening its electrical systems. Hurricane Milton’s surge later forced officials to shut the plant down entirely, cutting off sewer service to more than half the city during both storms.
Planning for the upgrades began years ago, with construction starting in 2022. In addition to elevating equipment, crews replaced aging infrastructure, added three new emergency generators, improved distribution pumps, and built a deep injection well to expand capacity for disposing of treated reclaimed water.
A group of 50 local middle and high school students toured the upgraded plant on Monday. “It’s important,” student Aliyah Smith said. “We need it. So, it’s good to learn about it.”
Separately, the state awarded St. Petersburg $2 million toward a new $24 million pump station planned near Denver Street Northeast, between North Dakota Avenue Northeast and Pennsylvania Avenue Northeast.
Looking ahead, crews plan to raise the Northeast plant’s operations building to 28 feet to withstand Category 5 hurricane winds. Similar upgrades are already underway at the city’s Southwest plant, and officials plan to renovate a third treatment facility within the next three to five years.
The work is part of the city’s broader Agile Resilience plan. Voters will decide this fall on a $600 million bond that city officials say would double the number of resiliency projects the city can complete over five years. Tankersley said the city plans to install four pump stations over the next five years at a combined cost of about $100 million, with construction on the Denver Street project expected to begin within two years. The pump station project is designed to speed drainage and reduce flooding for more than 350 structures.
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