Englewood Water District reports about 200,000 gallons of raw sewage flows into dry pond on former wastewater plant site
In the wake of Hurricane Milton’s path through Sarasota County, hundreds of thousands of gallons sewage have been spilled, as noted in reports that local government employees have filed with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP).
On Oct. 17, on Facebook, the Sarasota County Public Utilities staff said that Milton caused the loss of power to the majority of the department’s nearly 800 lift stations, resulting in “a total of 33 minor spills and three larger spills throughout the county,” with an overall loss of 146,660 gallons.
High Tide Technologies explains, “A wastewater lift station 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.”
In regard to the lift stations in general, the Public Utilities department noted, “Our staff deployed as soon as conditions were safe to bring generators to the areas and limit any additional spillage that may have occurred and restore service to our community.”
That post added, “Sarasota County Public Utilities believes in full transparency with our community and reports all spills to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection,” along with reports to the Florida State Watch Office on what it called “qualifying spills.”
As the state’s Division of Emergency Management explains, “The State Watch Office operates 24/7, 365 days a year as a daily extension of the Florida State Emergency Operations Center. The State Watch Office monitors local, state, and national media as well as communicates with Florida’s counties and state agencies to ensure that the State Emergency Response Team is aware of any on-going or developing situations. The [State Watch Office] maintains communications systems and warning capabilities to ensure that the state’s population and emergency management agencies are warned of developing emergency situations and can communicate emergency response decisions as mandated by [state law].”
Among the reportable incidents, a chart on that website says, are wastewater releases.
Additionally, on Oct. 15, the county’s Public Utilities staff reported the spill of about 94,000 gallons of raw sewage at Palms Plaza, located at 2010 E. Venice Ave. That situation resulted from a broken 8-inch wastewater force main, the report explained. Workers were able to recover approximately 100,000 gallons of sewage and stormwater mixed.
As the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 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. “
Staff pointed out that that spill began at 10:45 a.m. on Oct. 15; it ended at 2:30 p.m.
Notifications for surrounding property owners and residents, as well as the clean-up, were proceeding per county protocol, the report said. “State Watch will be notified,” it added.
As surface waters were affected, the report continued, sampling would be necessary to ensure public safety.
The Palms Plaza lift station is part of the infrastructure linked to the Venice Gardens Water Reclamation Facility (WRF), the report pointed out.
Earlier, on Oct. 11, the Public Utilities Department reported that the failure of a UPS (uninterrupted power supply device] resulted in the cessation of a pump’s operations and the spill of 126,000 gallons of raw sewage at the site of the Venice Gardens WRF. No recovery of the effluent was possible, staff added, but no waterways were affected.
Workers operated the pump by hand as soon as they arrived on the scene, the report explained. The UPS was repaired, it said, enabling the pump to run “as intended.”
That incident began at 4:05 a.m.; it ended at 5:35 a.m.
The Venice Gardens WRF stands at 375 Venice East Blvd. With a permitted treatment capacity of 3 million gallons per day, the county website notes, it serves the unincorporated areas of South Sarasota County.
Englewood Water District reports spills from Lift Station 121
In two separate incidents, the Englewood Water District reported to FDEP that an estimated 200,000 gallons of raw wastewater spilled into a dry, bermed pond on the site where a wastewater plant previously operated.
The location was 201 Selma Ave. in Venice, where Lift Station No. 121 stands.
About 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 5, District staff told FDEP, the lift station “overflowed due to increased flows from heavy rains in the area.” The spill continued until about 9:30 p.m., that report noted. All of the effluent was “contained in that area,” the report pointed out, with no public or state waterways affected.
“We will begin pumping the spilled wastewater back into the lift station as soon as we can,” the report added. “We will disinfect the ground with lime when we are done.”
Then, on Oct. 6, the Englewood Water District reported that about 7:30 p.m. that day, the same lift station, standing at 201 Selma Ave. in Englewood, overflowed because of the heavy rainfall in the area.
Altogether, staff estimated another 100,000 gallons of raw sewage may have been spilled into the dry, bermed pond on the site where a wastewater plant previously operated.
“No public or state [waterways] were affected by this spill,” the report added.
Workers planned to begin pumping the spilled wastewater back into the lift station as soon as they could, the report pointed out. “We will disinfect the ground with lime when we are done,” it added.
That situation was resolved by 10:45 p.m., the report said.
Almost a week later, at 9 p.m. on Oct. 11, Englewood Water District staff received a call about a manhole overflowing on Golf View Drive in the Boca Royale community, the District notified FDEP. Staff estimated that 5,000 gallons of diluted wastewater entered a nearby retention pond, the report pointed out.
“This event occurred due to the impact of Hurricane Milton,” that report explained. “Potable water had been restored to the community for health and fire safety, but not all lift stations had power yet. As residents in the community started using water,” the report continued, “the gravity main at this location, which already had a lot of rain water in it, began to overflow. This diluted overflowed water was not under pressure and came out around the edges of a manhole,” the report added.
“A generator was relocated to the lift station associated with this manhole,” and the spill was stopped about midnight the same day, the report noted. “We have not been able to start cleanup or begin sampling of the pond yet,” that Oct. 14 report to FDEP continued, “as we are still working to bring the rest of the collection system back up after the Hurricane. We will begin as soon as possible,” staff added.
Then, about 7 a.m. on Oct. 12, the District staff notified FDEP that its workers had found a manhole overflowing in the Deer Creek Mobile Home Park. Staff estimated that about 2,500 gallons of diluted wastewater spilled, the report said. “There was no standing water to recover,” it noted.
The spill consisted mostly of rain and creek water “that had entered the system at that location,” the report added.
This event also was a result of Hurricane Milton’s effects, the report explained, providing the same information as the Oct. 11 incident account did about District crews’ efforts to restore potable water to the public.
The lift station associated with this manhole was damaged by storm surge, the report on the Oct. 12 spill added. As residents in the community started using water, the report continued, the gravity main at this location, “which already had a lot of rainwater and storm surge water in it, began to overflow,” the report continued. “This diluted overflowed water was not under pressure and came out around the edges of a manhole.”
The report added, “The lift station associated with this manhole was pumped down and the spill stopped.”
Nonetheless, the report said, “The spilled wastewater entered Gottfried Creek. … We have collected samples from Gottfried Creek but have not received results yet.”