Equipment error blamed for incident
Beginning on Saturday, Oct. 3, about 124,692 gallons of raw sewage spilled at the City of North Port’s wastewater treatment plant, which stands at 5355 Pan American Blvd., city staff has notified the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP).
The spill, which was attributed to a problem at the “headworks” of the facility, did not affect storm drains or waterways, the report said.
Wastewater Digest explains that the headworks “is where the wastewater enters the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). … [The headworks] contains bar screens to block large solids from entering the system and grit chambers to remove heavier particles,” such as sand and gravel. “Besides flow controls and pumps, a headworks in some [wastewater treatment plants], depending on the plant’s needs, also contains a [type of equipment used] to shred solids into smaller pieces and an equalization tank to stabilize the flow rate.”
The incident began at 2:05 p.m. on Oct. 3, and it was not resolved until 7:20 a.m. on Oct. 4, the report noted.
The wastewater treatment plant parcel comprises nearly 9.5 acres, as noted on the website of Sarasota County Property Appraiser Bill Furst, The Sarasota News Leaderlearned.
Clean-up efforts did follow the incident, the report to FDEP added; they included the washing down of the affected area and the use of lime.
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation explains that lime is used on sewage spills to disinfect the site, neutralize strong odors and adjust the pH level to destabilize harmful bacteria.