Video shows City of St. Pete dumping loads of murky water into canal

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A City of St. Petersburg utility crew was recorded dumping murky water into a canal that feeds into the Riviera Bay on Friday morning.

Chris Powers took the two-minute video while staying at a friend's home, across from the city-owned Sunlit Cove Boat Ramp.

"Anybody in their right mind would look at that and go, 'That's not supposed to be happening'," he said. "The video shows it all you know. It's just disgusting. There's fertilizers, there's probably dog waste, there's probably car oils."

The video shows a utility crew backing up to the boat ramp and, for several seconds, dumping dark-colored water into the canal.

"I saw them four or five times on Thursday, two times yesterday [Friday]," he said. "The second time I got the video of them backing this big truck in here."

Powers has lived in the community for 40 years and said it's where he raised his three daughters. He said, "I wouldn't let my kids swim in the water right now. I surely wouldn't eat a fish out of here right now."

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He said he fears for the area's water quality.

"I'm sure the city has properties where they can discharge that water and let the earth naturally filter it and that was not happening. They were destroying what we have here," explained Powers.

In a social media post, District 2 Councilmember Brandi Gabbard shared a statement from the Stormwater, Pavement, and Traffic Operations Department Director:

 "On the morning of September 20th, City stormwater crews from the Stormwater, Pavement, and Traffic Operations (SPTO) department performing maintenance on stormwater structures in the Riviera Bay neighborhood vacuumed stormwater from a stormwater vault in order to create a dry environment to perform the maintenance work. The water vacuumed out of the stormwater vault consisted of a mix of tidal water, groundwater, and stormwater runoff. The crew discharged the water downstream at the Sunlit Cove Boat Ramp. Since the water was a tidewater/groundwater/stormwater mix and originated from a stormwater system that flows into Riviera Bay, it could be returned there. The crew and equipment do not work on sanitary sewage or wastewater systems, and all activities follow required federal and state environmental and stormwater permits." - Marshall T. Hampton, P.E., C.P.M. SPTO Director.

Councilmember Gabbard added, "It had to be pumped out of the system today [Friday] because we were working on our infrastructure as we have been doing continuously since Tropical Storm Eta in 2020."

FOX 13 reached out to the City of St. Pete about the incident, asking what the crew was doing and if this was standard protocol. The city provided the same statement that Gabbard shared.

FOX 13 also reached out to the Riviera Bay Civic Association for a comment but has not received a response.

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