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Bayfront Tower condos in St. Petersburg without water after pipe break

 
Residents of Bayfront Tower condominiums were without running water Tuesday after an underground pipe broke. Built in 1975, the tower at 1 Beach Drive SE is downtown St. Petersburg’s oldest condo tower and, with about 250 units, one of its largest.
Residents of Bayfront Tower condominiums were without running water Tuesday after an underground pipe broke. Built in 1975, the tower at 1 Beach Drive SE is downtown St. Petersburg’s oldest condo tower and, with about 250 units, one of its largest.
Published Dec. 17, 2014

ST. PETERSBURG — Residents of Bayfront Tower condominiums were without running water in their units Tuesday afternoon, 24 hours after an aging underground pipe sprung a leak.

Steven Leavitt, director of the city of St. Petersburg Water Resources Department, said the leak was in the building's internal plumbing and did not involve any city pipes.

"The last I heard, they were still trying to locate it," he said at 3 p.m. Tuesday, referring to the leak.

Hal Freedman, who lives on the 27th floor, said residents were able to use bathrooms on the third-floor office level, where the water was still on. Some also filled 5-gallon buckets with water to flush their toilets.

Residents who belong to the St. Petersburg Yacht Club, which is across the street, have gone there to shower.

"I'm favorably impressed with our staff," Freedman said. "It's been a pretty positive experience in terms of people just taking it in stride and living with it. They're not happy about it, but it's life."

Built in 1975, the tower at 1 Beach Drive SE is downtown St. Petersburg's oldest condo tower and, with about 250 units, one of its largest. It has been undergoing a multimillion-dollar renovation.

This is the second Tampa Bay condo tower to be hit with water woes recently. In early November, a worker accidentally broke a sprinkler pipe at the Stovall on Tampa's Bayshore Boulevard, sending water cascading through light fixtures, down stairs and into 20 units.

Residents were forced to move out for weeks when the power had to be turned off to repair the damaged electrical system.