Tampa rain puts drainage system to ultimate test

Tampa is dry for now, but the stormy weather over the past several days has put the city's drainage systems to the ultimate test.

• After the storm: Flood recovery info
  

Tampa's Wastewater Treatment plant continues to work above its normal capacity.

"We normally have 60 million gallons a day go through this facility," said Eric Weiss, Director of Tampa's Wastewater Management. "Today (Tuesday) we have 140 million."

At its height, 200 million gallons went through the Tampa facility. Operations supervisor Dan Vanderschuur said he hasn't seen levels like that since 2005 with Hurricane Rita.

"This was a no name storm," said Vanderschuur.

The constant rainfall also overtaxed the city's storm water pumps.

At the station off of East 113th Avenue, the pump pulled in 8,500 gallons a minute Tuesday. Just Monday, it was 25,000 gallons a minute.

"The pump stations, most are continuing to pump down the water levels," said Tampa Transportation and Storm Water Director Jean Duncan Tuesday.  

It's expected to take several more days before the levels are back to normal.