Contractor working on city sewer line blamed for incident
On Sunday, June 15, in an effort to recover about 250 gallons of raw sewage that flowed into a sewer storm drain located at 818 N. Orange Ave. in Sarasota, City of Sarasota workers ended up removing approximately 20,000 gallons of fluid, staff has reported to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP).
The spill site is east of the campus of Sarasota Military Academy, a map shows.
The incident began at 11:30 a.m. on June 15, the FDEP report says. The city crew that responded to a call about a sewer backup on North Orange Avenue discovered that the affected main sewer pipeline was surcharged, the report pointed out. The City of Republic, Missouri, explains on its website, “A surcharged sewer is [a situation in which a] sewer line cannot release the amount of water (or sewage) fast enough so [the effluent] begins to back up into the sewer system and/or privately owned lines.”
“The crew used tanker trucks to pump down the [affected] manhole and contain the spill,” the FDEP report adds.
The members of that crew traced the problem to a nearby construction site, where the contractor was replacing a portion of the city’s sanitary sewer mainline and had a bypass in place, the report points out. When the primary pump failed, the report continued, the backup pump did not activate because it had a dead battery.
“The contractor repaired the pump while the city crew continued to contain the spill with tankers, applied lime,” and then washed down and vacuumed up the spill site utilizing a vacuum truck, the report noted. Water samples were being taken, the report said, in an effort to protect public health.
The incident was resolved by 3:15 p.m. that day, the report added.
“City staff met with the contractor regarding this incident” and advised company representatives “that this situation was unacceptable,” the report pointed out. “Moving forward, the contractor will be required to meet with city staff weekly, while the bypass is in place, to demonstrate proper operation of all pumps and appurtenances,” the report said. “Additionally, city staff is compiling an estimate of the costs associated with this event to submit to the contractor for payment.”