Flooding from Tropical Storm Colin is quite literally making a mess of the Tampa Bay area.
St. Petersburg officials told the Associated Press that the city will be pumping partially treated sewage into the bay after rainwater infiltrated leaky sewer pipes and overloaded the system. According to the National Weather Service, much of the Tampa Bay area still had standing water as of Wednesday morning.
St. Petersburg Public Works Administrator Claude Tankersley said the sewage will be pumped by pipe about a quarter of a mile into the bay, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection has been notified of the discharge.
Without knowing how much more rain would fall, Tankersley said he couldn't estimate how many more gallons would need to be dumped.
"Who knows?" he told the Tampa Bay Times. "I really have no way of guessing."
Officials from St. Pete Beach, Florida, asked residents on Tuesday to not use the sewer system. Mayor Maria Lowe said that the city's sanitary sewer pipe and pump station system is now "completely full and cannot accept any additional flow."
Lowe said residents and businesses should not takes showers or baths, do laundry, wash dishes or engage in "any other use of water that enters the sanitary sewer system."
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