Broken pipeline blamed for incident
On Aug. 6, about 6,300 gallons of raw sewage spilled from manholes onto the road at 1823 Brookhaven Drive in Sarasota, the Sarasota County Public Utilities Department has notified the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP).
Brookhaven Drive is located between Phillippi Creek and South Beneva Road, a map shows. Its homes front on the Palms Golf Club at Forest Lakes.
“Staff quickly responded” to the scene after being alerted about the situation, the report points out. The crew confirmed that the spill was caused by a break in an 8-inch wastewater gravity main behind the residence standing at 1823 Brookhaven Drive, the report notes. The staff was unable to recover any of the sewage, the report says.
The stormwater basin and waterways were affected, it adds, so water sampling was required to ensure protection of public health.
Clean-up of the scene was “being done according to protocol,” the report continues, including the use of lime.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency explains, “Force mains are pipelines that convey wastewater under pressure from the discharge side of a pump or pneumatic ejector to a discharge point. Pumps or compressors located in a lift station provide the energy for wastewater conveyance in force mains.”
“A wastewater lift station,” High Tide Technologies points out, “is a pumping station that moves wastewater from a lower elevation to a higher elevation. The benefit of using a lift station in a sewage collection system is that it saves a substantial amount of money in excavation costs, which involves digging for sewer pipes. Sewer pipes live underground, and digging trenches is costly. Installing a wastewater lift station at certain points in a gravity pipeline system saves on front-end construction costs without sacrificing efficiency or functionality. They play an integral role in moving sewage to a wastewater treatment plant.”
Staff also pumped 12,000 gallons of wastewater from other portions of the wastewater system upstream “to prevent any further spilling,” the report points out.
A contractor would be handling the repair work “and determining the cause of the failure,” the report says.
The incident began at 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 6, the report notes; it was resolved by 12:30 p.m.
The affected gravity force main is part of the infrastructure linked to the Bee Ridge Water Reclamation Facility, which is the largest of the county’s sewage treatment plants. It is located at 5550 Lorraine Road in Sarasota.