The city of St. Pete Beach is suing British Pertroleum BP, making the municipality the first government in the Tampa Bay area to take the oil giant to court.
In legal documents uncovered by Bay News 9, there's no definitive dollar amount set, but St. Pete Beach wants BP to compensate them for all money lost as a result of the Deepwater Horizon Spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010.
In the years since the spill, BP has settled with other municipalities, including here in Florida, but St. Pete Beach will be the first municipality in the Tampa Bay area to take legal action against BP to recuperate funds. City officials stated they are willing to go as far as they need in order to get back all the revenue they lost as a result of the spill.
The historic Hurricane Restaurant, a family-run business first opened in 1977, was almost forced to shut down not long after the spill. "The bottom just dropped and each week it got worse, it got worse, it got worse," Hurricane Restaurant spokesperson Rick Falkenstein said.
And just like so many other restaurants, hotels and shops in St. Pete Beach, the Falkenstein family had to cut salaries, let employees go and do anything they could to stay afloat after the spill. "We used every savings fund, every maintenance fund, everything that we had to keep our doors open," Falkenstein recalled.
Not long after the spill, BP created a fund for all affected businesses, but cities and other government agencies found themselves exempt from recuperating funds.
"When the oil spill happened, time just stood still out here,” attorney Christa Collins said. She is representing beach business owners, including the Hurricane, the City of St. Pete Beach and other municipalities. "People called from around the country [and] canceled their reservations."
"We think that money should come back to St. Pete Beach and reinvested back in our community to help rebuild our tourism beach," St. Pete Beach city manager Mike Bonfield said. "Ironically, not even one drop of oil ever washed up on the beach but potential visitors thought it was covered in oil.
Collins felt those who canceled were doing so because they didn't want to take a risk on the area being soaked with oil from the spill, ruining their vacations.
By October 2010, the Hurricane finally saw its customers come back.
As for the city, recently named the #1 beach destination in the U.S., Collins said, “the goal is to make the city whole, to replenish funds they lost as a result of the oil spill."
St. Pete Beach could be the tip of the iceberg. Other communities, including Treasure Island, Madeira Beach and Indian Rocks Beach are talking about similar litigation against BP.