St. Pete wastewater spill has residents worried about water quality
10k gallons of wastewater spills into Riviera Bay
Road repairs are complete after 10,000 gallons of wastewater spilled from a water main break, but residents are concerned about the quality of the water.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Two days after a sizeable wastewater leak into St. Petersburg’s Riviera Bay, road repairs are complete but the threat to water quality still looms.
City officials originally projected road repairs to be done by Tuesday, but crews cleared the orange barrels and "road closure" signs from Patica Rd. NE (San Martin Blvd.) ahead of schedule, early Monday morning.
However, there’s been no update on water quality testing in Riviera Bay.
Over the weekend nearly 10,000 gallons of wastewater leaked into Riviera Bay prompting city officials to issue an advisory.
Crews repaired the road after a wastewater spill, but residents are concerned about the water quality.
"We had the red tide a couple of years ago and it was really brutal, hopefully we don’t recreate that environment with our fish and wildlife in the water," said Chris Oman, whose street was closed due to the repairs. "Typical weekend given the weather, we’d be out there water-skiing, wakeboarding, tubing with the kids right now, so, it’s unfortunate this happened and hopefully it’ll get cleaned up soon."
Crews were able to contain the leak over the weekend, by utilizing containment pits and vacuum trucks. All sewage removed from the containment pit was trucked away for full treatment in the city’s wastewater facilities.
Residents should continue to avoid a Riviera Bay until further notice.