Latest post-Hermine sewage spill total: 85.1 million gallons — and rising

The official tally of sewage dumped into the streets and waterways of Tampa Bay keeps growing.

Clearwater reported Friday that its overwhelmed system spilled an estimated 31.7 million gallons of diluted sewage as Hurricane Hermine drenched the state last week.

Largo officials said the city released 24.4 million gallons. That number does not include nine of the city's 23 spills that the city was not yet able to count.

That brings the latest total for the area to 85.1 million gallons, which will almost certainly rise as municipalities release more reports and adjust their figures even higher.

Earlier in the week, Pinellas County said it released 7.3 million gallons and the city of Tampa discharged 1.7 million gallons. But the biggest offender by far is likely to remain the City of St. Petersburg.

Officials there said they had discharged more than 20 million gallons by Monday morning — but that was the sixth day of 10 straight days of sewage discharges.

St. Petersburg officials said they stopped discharging waste through a pipe into the bay at 4 a.m. Friday. They also acknowledged Thursday that a malfunction may prevent them from ever knowing exactly how many millions of gallons were spilled.