Pipeline that failed already was scheduled for replacement
On Oct. 25, the failure of a Sarasota County sewer force main, located at the intersection of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way and North Euclid Street in Sarasota, resulted in about 14,000 gallons of raw sewage spilling into an adjacent stormwater ditch and swales, county staff reported to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP).
County staff was alerted to the incident by a call it received about 10:30 a.m. on Oct. 25, the county’s report to FDEP said. When a crew arrived at the site, the report added, it found the problem with the 12-inch force main. Workers were able to stop the flow of raw sewage, and then staff was able to recover approximately 41,000 gallons of stormwater combined with sewage, the report pointed out.
The site is about one-and-a-half blocks east of Newtown Estates Park, and it is northeast of Emma E. Booker Elementary School, a map shows.
Crews stayed on the scene until 1 p.m. on Oct. 25 to rectify the situation, the report added.
A sewer force main, Trenchlesspedia explains, “is a pressurized sewer pipe that conveys wastewater under pressure from the discharge side of the pump. Force mains are used where gravity is not enough to move sewage or stormwater runoff through a sewer pipe.”
Notifications of nearby property owners and cleanup procedures were proceeding according to county protocol, the FDEP report added. Water samples will be taken, the report noted.
The force main at the site already had been scheduled for replacement this fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1, the report said. That sewer force main is part of the service area of the Bee Ridge Water Reclamation Facility (WRF), which is located on Lorraine Road in Sarasota.
Altogether, the County Commission approved the spending of $33,766,626 in wastewater systems improvements for the Public Utilities Department during the current fiscal year.
It’s time to stop all the building and update the infrastructure. This should have been done long ago!