Nearly 1 million gallons of wastewater spilled around Tampa Bay. (Tampa Bay Times)

It's basic engineering to keep wastewater and poop out of our pristine waters here in Florida, but insouciant Florida cities cant seem to get the ethics and engineering required.

With good management, there should be no wastewater or poop emitted by local govvernments. This is self-evident.

It reminds me of a case where the Mississippi Supreme Court could “imagine no reason why, with ordinary care human toes could not be left out of chewing tobacco, and if toes are found in chewing tobacco, it seems to us that somebody has been very careless.” Pillars v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 78 So. 365 (Miss. 1918).

Devious St. Augustine City "Manager" WILLIAM BARRY HARRIS escaped criminal prosecution for his sewage and solid waste pollution environmental crimes under lax FDEP regulation.  As the late David Thundershield Queen put it best, "DEP stands for 'Don't Expect Protection."

While we're grateful for the consent order, we wish that government regulators did not go all soft and squishy when the polluter in quo is a government agency.

IF only City of St. Augustine officials responsible for sewage pollution were criminally prosecuted circa 2008-2012, our State of Florida would not have such frequent sewage spills.

In my four decades of experience, whether the City of St. Augustine, Tennessee Valley Authority, U.S. Department of Energy, or otherwise, government polluters betray the public trust and must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

We need:

• Zero tolerance for governments that violate environmental laws.  
• Jail for polluters.

From Tampa Bay Times:

Nearly 1 million gallons of wastewater spilled around Tampa Bay

The recent incidents have occurred in the area's three largest cities, with the largest happening in Clearwater

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DIRK SHADD | Times Beach closed for swimming signs at North Shore Park in St. Petersburg Tuesday afternoon (09/13/16). The city of St. Petersburg estimates 70 million gallons of partially treated sewage has been dumped into the waters of Tampa Bay after the drenching rains of Hurricane Hermine. For 10 straight days, the city discharged waste from its overwhelmed sewage system into a pipe that emptied about a quarter of a mile off the downtown shoreline. That finally ended Friday.

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By Charlie Frago and Josh Solomon

Published December 24

The three largest cities in the Tampa Bay area have spilled almost 1-million gallons of wastewater combined in recent days, records from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection show.

Clearwater was responsible for the largest spill, which happened Friday and involved 750,000 gallons of wastewater. It also had a much smaller spill the day before.

Tampa had a spill the same day that resulted in about 38,000 gallons of wastewater flowing onto property and into a stormwater ditch. St. Petersburg has reported three incidents since Friday, which together poured about 70,000 gallons into the storm water system.

Heavy rains last week contributed to the Tampa spill, though the rain did not appear to affect what happened in St. Petersburg. It was unclear what role, if any, stormwater runoff played in the Clearwater incidents.

Cities are required by law to post public notices of spills to a state Department of Environmental Protection website within 24 hours of the incident being discovered. While it appears Clearwater and Tampa met that deadline, St. Petersburg was late reporting two of its spills.

The St. Petersburg incidents are the latest in its ongoing sewage saga, which peaked in 2015 and 2016 and has resulted in more than one-billion gallons of wastewater being dumped, much of which made it into Tampa Bay.

THE BEGINNING: Hurricane Hermine leaves Tampa Bay area befouled (Sept. 2, 2016)

LEAKY PIPES: Sunshine City? More like the Leaky City: St. Petersburg's sewage problem tied to pipe leaks (Oct. 20, 2016)

NO CHARGES: No criminal charges in St. Pete’s 1 billion gallon sewage crisis (Oct. 27, 2017)

The first of the recent spills happened Thursday, when water levels at Clearwater's Northeast Water Treatment Facility in Safety Harbor overflowed, spilling about 38,000 gallons, according to a report city water officials sent to the state. The spill remained on the facility's property and did not reach the storm water system, officials said.

A partially blocked pipe was a factor in Tampa's spill, which caused about 38,000 gallons of wastewater to overflow into a storm ditch adjacent to E Adamo Drive and onto low-lying property at 6501 E Adamo Drive, its report said. Crews were sent out to clean up the site.

The next day, the same Clearwater facility had another, much larger spill. Three-quarters of a million gallons poured out. Officials said that spill did not leave the facility's property or reach the stormwater system.

St. Petersburg's first incident happened Friday night, when a corroded clamp failed and about 29,000 gallons of reclaimed water leaked from a pipe along Brightwaters Boulevard NE, which is in Snell Isle, according to a report. About 1,366 gallons soaked into the ground and the rest entered a storm drain on the 1900 block of Brightwaters Boulevard. Officials said they posted signs warning of contamination and had begun testing.

The second incident happened Saturday night, when a reclaimed water pipe sprang a leak along the 6100 block of 16th Lane NE, alongside the Northeast Water Reclamation Facility in Shore Acres, officials wrote. When workers tried to close a valve to stop the leak, the valve broke, causing a second leak. In all, about 4,000 gallons of water spilled, almost all of it entering a storm drain which leads to a nearby lake, the report said.