St. Pete South Cross Bayou Wastewater Upgrade Reaches Filter Milestone as December Target Nears

Rehabilitation of 11 denitrification filters has been completed at Pinellas County’s South Cross Bayou Advanced Water Reclamation Facility in St. Petersburg, according to project contractor Walsh. The milestone marks a major phase of construction, but the broader wastewater upgrade remains in progress.

Pinellas County lists the facility at 7401 54th Avenue N. in St. Petersburg and says construction on the denitrification improvement project is scheduled to conclude in December 2026. The project is intended to improve nitrogen removal, help treated water meet Florida environmental limits and reduce the risk of equipment failures that could lead to emergency spills.

What the contractor says was completed

Walsh reported that crews rehabilitated 11 denitrification filters and installed approximately 2,300 bags of replacement filter media. The filters are part of the treatment system used to remove nitrogen from wastewater before the water is further processed for reclaimed-water use or discharge.

In an April 2026 construction account, Walsh also documented a temporary bypass system and the relocation and tie-in of a 48-inch influent pipe serving the denitrification filters. The contractor said the operation managed approximately 30 million gallons per day of influent flow while the work proceeded.

Those details describe a completed construction phase reported by the contractor. They do not mean the entire South Cross Bayou rehabilitation project is finished.

The broader project remains active

Pinellas County’s project page lists the denitrification improvement work as “Construction: In progress.” The county says the project has been under construction since August 2023 and is scheduled to conclude in December 2026.

The remaining work includes rehabilitation of other filtration-system components, including valves, pumps, flowmeters and underdrain piping. The county’s December 2026 date is therefore the key schedule marker for the overall project, rather than the contractor’s completed filter milestone.

Why the work matters locally

South Cross Bayou is Pinellas County’s largest wastewater treatment facility. County information says the advanced water reclamation facility distributes an average of 14.6 million gallons of reclaimed water per day to more than 21,000 residential and commercial customers.

The denitrification upgrade is intended to help the facility meet nitrogen limits set by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and reduce nitrogen pollution that can contribute to algae blooms and harm fish and wildlife. The county also says upgrading aging infrastructure is intended to reduce the chance of system failures and emergency spills.

Those are intended project benefits, not guarantees that regulatory risk or spill risk has been eliminated.

Past service interruption shows the customer impact

Construction has already produced a direct service consequence for some customers. Pinellas County notified customers receiving reclaimed water from South Cross Bayou that service would be temporarily unavailable from February 11 through February 20, 2026, while filtration-system rehabilitation was underway.

The county said affected areas included the southern barrier islands, Belleair, Seminole and Pinellas Park. That interruption was temporary and occurred before the latest filter milestone. Residents and businesses that use reclaimed water should continue to distinguish future service notices from the project’s longer-term reliability and environmental goals.

Related county action does not signal completion

On April 7, 2026, the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners approved financial-responsibility forms for planned Class 1 injection-well permit applications involving the South Cross Bayou and W.E. Dunn facilities.

The county record says two planned South Cross Bayou injection wells were still in design, with no construction activity started at that time. The action concerned regulatory financial assurances and did not approve the injection-well permits or show that the denitrification improvement project was complete.

For St. Petersburg residents and reclaimed-water customers, the next major checkpoint is the county’s December 2026 completion target. The rehabilitation of 11 filters is a significant milestone, but it remains one phase of an active wastewater infrastructure project.

Sources

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