Overwhelmed by Hermine, cities across the Tampa Bay area dumped millions of gallons of sewage.
Cities are still trying to determine just how much sewage was released.
By Pam Wright
The Weather Channel
In the wake of Hurricane Hermine, many Floridians are having to put up with an unpleasant stench in the air.
According to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection via WTSP, tens of millions of gallons of sewage has been released into the waters of Tampa Bay and into watersheds all over Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco and Hernando counties.
After heavy rain from Hermine backed up aging sewer systems unable to handle big storms throughout the region, partially treated water along with raw sewage spewed from manholes, forcing cities to dump partially treated water to handle the backup at wastewater treatment plants.
At least 30 million gallons of partially treated water and raw sewagewere released into Tampa Bay alone, reports the Tampa Bay Times.
While it is unclear just how much sewage was released from plants in cities across the region, engineers are reportedly performing complex calculations to figure out how much sewage flowed out of manholes or from sewer plants overwhelmed by rain, said Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Shannon Herbon told the Times.
(MORE: St. Petersburg Pumping Sewage into Bay as Tropical Storm Colin Flooding Continues)
Even before the storm arrived several cities, including the city of St. Petersburg, performed what is called a “controlled wastewater discharge into Tampa Bay,” WMNF reports.
In a report filed with the state Monday, an initial estimate of 20 million gallons was released in St. Petersburg. However, the sewage dump continued Tuesday and Wednesday.
Officials in Clearwater said they would announce Friday how many gallons of sewage overflowed into the streets.
A similar scenario took place in June when the aging Tampa Bay area sewage infrastructure was overwhelmed by Tropical Storm Colin.
___
http://weather.com/science/environment/news/sewage-dump-tampa-bay-hermine