Pinellas Seeks $15M in State Grants to Flood-Proof Aging South Cross Bayou Wastewater Plant

Pinellas County commissioners voted unanimously this week to apply for up to $15 million in state grant money to upgrade the South Cross Bayou Advanced Water Reclamation Facility, the county's largest wastewater plant, whose 30-year-old pumps have reached the end of their working life and sit in a facility increasingly exposed to storm surge and sea-level rise.

The plant, near Joe's Creek in St. Petersburg, treats an average of 22 million gallons of wastewater a day for the county. It first opened in 1962 as a much smaller trickling filter plant and has grown over six decades into the region's main wastewater treatment and reclaimed-water operation, serving more than 21,000 residential and commercial customers with recycled irrigation water.

Commissioners are applying for the money through Florida's Resilient Florida Grant Program, run by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The county would match whatever it gets awarded, up to $15 million, bringing the total to $30 million. That still leaves a gap: the full project, known as the South Cross Bayou AWRF High Service Pump Station Improvements, is projected to cost $41.82 million.

Board Chairman Dave Eggers sent a letter to the state committing the county to that match if the grant comes through. In it, he wrote that the county "recognizes the importance of investing in resilience initiatives that reduce vulnerability to flooding, sea level rise, storm surge, extreme precipitation, and other climate-related impacts affecting critical infrastructure and community assets," and that the project would support public safety and long-term community resilience.

What the money would pay for

The engineering design isn't finished, but the plan so far calls for replacing aging pumps or adding new pumping equipment, installing floodproof doors, and relocating windows and electrical wiring out of harm's way. The goal is twofold: bring the facility up to current flood-resilience standards while adding pumping capacity for future growth.

A wastewater plant failure during a major storm isn't a hypothetical for Pinellas. The county's coastal geography and low-lying drainage put critical infrastructure like South Cross Bayou in the path of storm surge and heavy rain, the same combination that has flooded other utility sites across the Tampa Bay area in recent hurricane seasons. Keeping pumps running through a storm, rather than losing power or flooding out, determines whether wastewater keeps moving through the system or backs up into homes and waterways.

Where the funding fits

The matching dollars are built into the county's proposed Capital Improvement Plan for fiscal years 2027 through 2032, paid for through the Sewer Renewal and Replacement Fund, which utility customers fund through their rates. That means the project is already on the county's books regardless of whether the state grant comes through. What the grant would determine is how quickly, and how completely, the upgrades get built, and how much of the remaining $11.82 million gap the county has to cover on its own.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has not yet said when it will decide on this round of Resilient Florida Grant Program awards. The county has not said what happens to the project timeline if the application is turned down, or how it would close the funding gap if it's approved at a lower amount than requested.

Stay with Pinellas County Community Website for updates on the grant decision and the plant's construction timeline. You can also follow our coverage on Facebook or join the conversation in our Community Forum. For more coverage of county decisions like this one, visit our government and politics section.