On October 20, St. Petersburg City Council member Darden Rice will request public hearings to consider residents’ and stakeholders’ input in the city’s negotiation of a proposed consent order with the State Department of Environmental Protection, that would require the city to address failures in its failing sewage system.

While praising and supporting this request, the signatories of this petition assert that that whatever enforcement order is ultimately agreed upon should have community input and should be entered only after careful thought and consideration of all stakeholder concerns.

St. Petersburg and its surrounding communities continue to grow, while our local environment shoulders greater stress and climate change promises sea level rise and extreme weather. In light of the failure of the City to adequately communicate and/or understand the extent of the inadequacies of the system and risks to public health, we feel that public hearings on the proposed consent order and ongoing pubic input in the City’s sewage problems are important elements of efforts to fix the failures and regain public confidence in the City’s ability to adequately provide critical wastewater services in the future.