Rick Kriseman's administration lashed in St. Pete sewage report

A state report places much of the blame for the city's 200-million gallon sewage spill crisis on the administration of Mayor Rick Kriseman.

The 7-page draft report by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which was obtained by the Tampa Bay Times, does not name Kriseman or any of his staff. It also starts with the long view, blaming two decades of city leadership for setting the stage for St. Petersburg's massive sewage problems.

Then the report quickly zooms in on the recent crisis and the mistakes, indifference and neglect that sparked it, exacerbated it and prevented City Hall from making a course correction while millions of gallons of sewage spewed into neighborhoods and waterways.

"(St. Petersburg's) leadership has had a culture of being willfully and negligently indifferent toward known problems in its waste water treatment system that ultimately lead to some of the largest wastewater discharges in State history," wrote FWC investigator Ammon Fisher.

This is the report that Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe used when he recently decided that no city officials should face criminal charges in the sewage mess.