St. Pete Beach Mayor Adrian Petrila put it bluntly: Residents will have to limit water usage for over a week as the city recovers from Hurricane Milton.
“Our sewer system is at a complete standstill,” Petrila said in a video posted to Facebook on Thursday. “It is beyond capacity and so we really need you and everyone not to flush your toilets, not to use showers, not to do dishes, not to do laundry.”
Petrila said the system failures were “catastrophic.”
The city is working on a short-term solution by getting backup generators running and bypassing the damaged parts of the sewage system, said City engineer Camden Mills..
But until then, residents will have to control their water usage as much as possible.
Mills said the storm surge in St. Pete Beach inundated the electrical components of their lift stations – which help push water through the pipes in the sewage system. He said the system is “shut down.”
The main issue, however, is with master pump station one. This is where the flow is pumped under the bay to the city of St. Petersburg, Mills said.
With this system offline, the sewage will be just “sitting” there until it can be pumped out, he said.
If the system reaches capacity, it could cause backflows into residents’ homes.
“If someone uses their dishwasher or their sink or something, they could see backflows into their home,” he said. “So that's why we strongly advise to limit your water usage as much as possible until we get the service back online.”
The city is also working on a long-term project to fix the system. They will install new pumps, electrical equipment and backup generators. But this will likely take 18 months and cost over $6 million, Mills said.
As of Friday, Mills said there haven’t been any “adverse impacts,” to the environment from the sewage system being offline.
“We're hoping that people you know are heeding our warnings and continue to do so until we put the notice out that the system is online and safe to use,” he said.
Petrila urged those in the area to be patient as the city works to fix the issues.
“It is going to take time,” he said in a video posted to Facebook. “There is no easy way to say that. I'm not going to sugarcoat it for you. It will take time. So we're going to be asking for your patience.”
