FLORIDA, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016 -- Since Hurricane Hermine, the Category 1 storm made landfall in Tampa Bay last week, tens of millions of gallons of sewage been pouring into the waters of the Tampa Bay area.
On Monday, estimated totals for the City of St. Petersburg, Pinellas County, and the City of Tampa reached nearly 29 million gallons,but today officials changed that number to am estimated 31.7 million gallons, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Following a power outage that took out the city's wastewater facility, the City of Tampa spilled 938,000 gallons into Tampa Bay. Intake pumps were overwhelmed by heavy rains in Clearwater, devastating a sewer plant there; and a controlled discharge from St Petersburg's closed Albert Whitted wastewater treatment plant, now used for emergency storage, caused more harm to the area.
City officials are working with the EPA to determine the actual amount of sewage the leaked into local waterways, and to manage the cleanup.
