ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The immediate past president of the Shore Acres Civic Association, Kevin Batdorf, has pitched lawmakers on a big idea to install a retractable wall at the entrance of Tampa Bay to protect against storm surge flooding from hurricanes.
Batdorf lives in the lowest lying neighborhood in St. Petersburg, Shore Acres, which has experienced repeated flooding from storms in the past five years. Batdorf said he’s constantly looking for solutions to mitigate the rising problem.
“Create a floodgate system that crosses from Pinellas County to Manatee or Hillsborough County at the narrowest point that rises 12-to-15 feet high when a storm is coming,” he said. “It would prevent the water from coming into Tampa Bay and save billions of dollars of damage.”
“In the Netherlands, they had a similar situation to us,” he said. “Meaning they were inundated by rising tides, changing climate. So they had their engineers come up with a solution.”
State Senator Nick DeCeglie, R-Indian Rocks Beach, represents District 18, which covers most of Pinellas County. Senator DeCeglie said “it’s a great concept” but he’s skeptical a 14 mile long retractable wall in Tampa Bay could actually be implemented.
“Something like this would be billions and billions of dollars,” he said. “My question is immediately, what about the coastal communities? How does the water interacting with a dam, essentially, how does that impact areas North of the Bay? South of the Bay? That water has to go somewhere.”
DeCeglie said he’s focused on more realistic solutions and has been working on a permitting bill this session to make it easier for homeowners to install flood barriers.
“What we can actually accomplish in the near mid and long term is infrastructure improvements,” he said. “Whether that be stormwater, whether that be seawalls.”
Batdorf said he realizes there are big challenges with his idea from jurisdictional, funding and environmental.
“I think it’s going to be the State of Florida and the federal government that are going to have to come in and do the engineering and frankly, pay for it,” he said. “FEMA’s paying out billions of dollars in claims, there’s money available to stop paying those claims.”
“There are going to be environmental concerns and I get that it’s going to disturb the environment by installing it,” he added. “But I think it’s going to enhance the environment for sea life. Once it’s built, becomes a natural reef.”
Batdorf points out Tampa General Hospital and the City of St. Petersburg have purchased an Aqua Fence to prevent flooding and he wants to do the same for residents on a much larger scale.
“This idea is just common sense. If there’s a wall of water coming in, you put something up to stop it from coming in,” he said. “You see all these other entities putting up barriers to keep water out. Here’s a barrier to keep it out of everybody’s home.”
Batdorf has announced he’s going to run in the St. Petersburg mayor’s race but has not yet officially filed.
Josh Rojas
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