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Water-Related News

St. Petersburg Plans to Drill New Wells to Help Solve Sewage Crisis

A key part of solving the city's sewage crisis lies underground.

Or, more precisely, four wells drilled up to 1,100 feet into the Earth over the next year that are designed to safely dispose of fully treated wastewater.

If all goes well, the city hopes to have at least one of the wells ready by rainy season.

The injection wells are the way the city disposes of treated waste from its three sewage plants that isn't used for reclaimed water, pumping it hundreds of feet below the part of the Floridan aquifer that's used for drinking water and into the aquifer's brackish layer. State law requires that the sewage flushed down the wells be treated to the level of reclaimed water — what thousands of city residents sprinkle on their lawns.