The deluge from Tropical Storm Debby this week swamped Tampa Bay’s sewage systems, causing millions of gallons of raw and partially treated wastewater mixed with rain to overflow into streets, canals and natural waterways.
Sewage bubbled out of so many manholes in Clearwater that city workers ran out of vacuum trucks, forcing them to use sandbags to hold off the polluted water until they could suck it up, according to reports the city filed with the state.
“We had three or five trucks running 24 hours just trying to do as much as we possibly could,” said Rich Gardner, Clearwater’s director of public utilities, who added that the trucks got “a fraction” of the total pollution.
Together, local governments and housing complexes in…
