Water Threats Analysis

Background

The City of St. Pete Beach is committed to protecting the environment and ensuring that the City is a beautiful place in which to live, work, and play. One of the challenges coastal areas have is flooding.

There are many sources of flooding but for St. Pete Beach, the largest focus historically has been on improving drainage and stormwater flooding. But with the discovery of abnormally high regular tides and sea level rise, the focus evolved to implementing projects to mitigate flooding from bay tidal events. St. Pete Beach has three major sources of water that lead to flooding:

• The Gulf
• The Bay
• Precipitation

The arrival of the water and flooding comes from stormatic activity, tidal activity, and sea level rise.

These threats must be further analyzed and plans to mitigate them continue to be put in place.

Learn what we’re doing.

Water Threats Analysis Update

In the St. Pete Beach commission meeting dated April 27, 2021, the Commissioners approved several projects and studies including:

1. Amending the authorization of repairs to include concrete stormwater structures and inlets throughout the City.
2. Authorizing performance of outfall cleaning and clearing/maintenance services for drains.
3. Performing Boca Ciega Isle Drive Stormwater Improvements with Rowland Inc., in the amount of $251,527.41.
4. Proactively replacing aging reclaimed water laterals beneath the roadways that are scheduled for replacement.
5. Authorizing the utilization of the existing agreement with Rowland, Inc., to address current and future expenditures for emergency repairs on the City’s sanitary sewer system. Having a pre-authorized contractor mobilized to make the repairs increases the City's responsiveness to address these issues.
6. Authorizing the study of the comprehensive water threat of sea level rise (SLR), king tides, and storm activity as they impact transportation mobility, critical infrastructure operations, and private property. The Gulf sand beach will be addressed separately. The final reports will provide recommendations to protect the island from water threats and provide costs. The Commission approved the costs of water threats analysis task orders for:
   1. Cardno, Inc. in the amount of $49,989.00,
   2. Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc., in the amount of $49,550.00,
   3. Madrid-CPWG Inc., in the amount of $49,998.00,
   4. Halff Associates, Inc., in the amount of $50,000.00.

Next Steps

Staff recommendations will be presented once the full study analysis is completed. At that time, additional community forums will be scheduled to discuss findings, recommendations, and plans.

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