During Hurricane Milton in 2024, two of St. Petersburg's three wastewater treatment plants were forced to stop operating.
Now, the city has a plan to safeguard those wastewater and water treatment facilities and prevent flooding from storms in the future.
It's called SPAR, or St. Pete Agile Resilience. It would reduce threats to the city's utilities posed by rising sea levels and storm surge.
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But at the current rate of funding, that would take 24 years. So voters will be asked in November to authorize a $600 million bond to speed up that work.
"After the storms in 2024 to now, the most common comment I hear is, I don't want to wait 24 years," said Claude Tankersley, the city's public works administrator. " I don't want to wait that long. How can we get this done more quickly? And so this is our attempt to find a way to do it more quickly."
During a webinar Tuesday night, he said the projects would still go forward without the bond - but much more slowly.
"SPAR projects will be paid for regardless of whether the GO bond passes or not, they'll continue to be paid for the same way they always have, and that's through utility rates," he said. "But here's the problem - we've identified about $2.7 billion that needs to be done on these SPAR projects. And at the current rate of investment with our utilities, it would take roughly 24 years to finish those projects using only the utility rates."
Tankersley says part of the work would focus on the city's Northeast Sewer Treatment Plant.
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"We want to be able to keep this system operating when we have a storm like we did in Helene, where we had a seven-foot storm surge that required us to shut the plant down to protect it," he said. "And so projects like this will allow us to continue to operate that facility even during a bad storm."
Here's the language that will be on the November ballot:
General Obligation Bond Referendum
Shall the City finance storm resilience improvements, including but not limited to, floodwater protection, stormwater pump stations, drainage infrastructure, as well as wastewater collection and treatment facilities, drinking water distribution and supply facilities, by issuing general obligation bonds in one or more series, not exceeding $600,000,000, bearing interest not exceeding maximum legal rates, maturing not more than 30 years from each issuance date, pledging the City's full faith, credit, and unlimited ad valorem taxing power?
- Yes - For Bonds
- No - Against Bonds
