ST. PETE, Fla. — After the City of St. Petersburg had to proactively pull two major sewer treatment plants offline before Hurricane Milton, officials wanted to find a way to make the wastewater system more resilient to future storms.

The city approved $600,000 to go towards buying an AquaFence to protect a critical Lift Station that’s located near Albert Whitted Airport in downtown St. Pete.

This Lift Station then pumps roughly 7 million gallons each day to the Southwest Water Reclamation facility where the sewage is treated.

The AquaFence will be roughly 9 feet high and protect the wastewater station from storm surge. It’s a deployable system that can be installed with water tight gaskets onto the hard pavement and surround the building that houses the station’s pumping system.

John Palenchar, the city’s water resources director, says they got the idea from Tampa General Hospital. The hospital, which sits directly on the waterfront, deployed their AquaFence last hurricane season and deemed it a success.

“We’re trying to get ahead of it,” he said. “Nothing is going to work in every possible situation but we try to deploy the best solutions that we have.”

The AquaFence will be roughly 9 feet high and protect the wastewater station from storm surge. It will be similar to the one that is used at Tampa General Hospital (pictured) during hurricane season. (Tampa General Hospital)

Palenchar says currently there’s three layers of emergency backup systems that power the lift station by downtown St. Pete. But should a major storm surge take over the area, it could short out the system and cause major issues for homeowners looking to take showers and flush toilets. That’s why they moved quickly on purchasing the AquaFence.

Now that the city has approved the purchase, they’re hoping to have the new system in house by the start of hurricane season in June.

“It takes four months for these things to be manufactured, so we wanted to make sure we were right up in front of the cue so we could get this before next hurricane season.”

An additional $2 million will go towards making the Southwest and Northeast water reclamation facilities more storm ready. The water resources department will use that money to install water tight doors, stop logs, and water proof coatings for critical buildings.