Two days after the city of St. Pete showcased construction progress on its Southwest Water Reclaimation facility, there was a sewage spill.
The 50,000 gallons of mostly treated wastewater was contained within the plant. The city says a heavy downpour Wednesday dumped almost two inches of rain in one hour.
That apparently overwhelmed the system, which is not operating at full capacity because of construction. The city insists that, when the expansion project is completed, the Southwest plant would have been able to fully handle the extra surge of water.