Nearly 800,000 gallons of raw sewage spills from county lift stations as Tropical Storm Debby inundates waste collection system

Power outages and pumps clogged with rags also cited as causes

Because Sarasota County’s “sanitary sewer collection system was inundated with rainfall and flooding” during Tropical Storm Debby, approximately 792,700 gallons of raw sewage spilled from multiple lift stations, county staff has reported.

As a result of the conditions at the time of those incidents, no recovery was possible, staff pointed out.

“Despite our staff’s efforts throughout the storm, nine out of our 785 lift stations (1.1%) experienced sanitary sewer overflows,” staff posted on the Sarasota County Government Facebook page on Aug. 7. The spills were a result of a number of factors, the post pointed out, including “power outages, an overwhelming amount of rainwater in the system, and pumps clogged with rags.”

The largest spill occurred at the Siesta Key Master Pump Station, which stands next to the Grand Canal at 5200 Oakmont Place. That totaled 309,000 gallons, the Public Utilities staff reported to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP).

The second largest spill occurred at the Linwood Regional Lift Station, which stands at 2195 Linwood Drive in Sarasota. That amount was 252,000. The Facebook post noted that manholes rose above the road in that incident

During the “Invest 90L” downpour in early June, about 30,000 gallons of effluent spilled from the Linwood Regional Lift Station, with none of it recovered. Linwood Drive is east of McIntosh Road and west of Phillippi Creek, in the Sarasota Springs area of the county, a map shows.

Altogether, more than 100,000 gallons of raw sewage flowed from lift stations during the Invest 90L rain inundation, staff noted at the time.

The other sites of the Tropical Storm Debby spills are as follows:

• Gulf Gate Regional Lift Station, located at 7302 Bounty Road — 96,000 gallons.
• Riverview Lift Station, standing at 2 Ram Bowl Way, near Riverview High School — 80,000 gallons.
• Pump Station 25, which stands at 2420 U.S. 41 in Osprey — 50,000 gallons, as a result of a Florida Power & Light Co. (FPL) outage.
• Longwood Park Master Lift Station, which stands at 6050 Longwood Run Blvd. — 4,500 gallons (pumps clogged with rags).
• Beneva Woods Lift Station, which is located at 3612 Beneva Woods Blvd. — 800 gallons.
• Coral Club Lift Station, which stands at 3343 Clark Road — 200 gallons.
• Willow Leaf Lift Station, which is located at 5123 Willow Leaf Drive — 200 gallons (FPL outage).

The Facebook post also noted that water sampling is taking place at many of the above locations, as required. Cleanup of the areas and notifications to surrounding property owners and residents were proceeding per protocol, the post added.

In the 8:45 p.m. Emergency Update that Sarasota County staff issued on Aug. 5, one of the items regarded a spill at the Central County Water Reclamation Facility, which stands on Palmer Ranch: “Due to high flows at the Central County Wastewater Treatment Facility caused by Tropical Storm Debby, the filters at the plant exceeded capacity for a short period of time. During this time, 500 gallons of partially treated wastewater spilled on site. Cleanup and notifications are proceeding per protocol. No surface waters were impacted, and no sampling is necessary.”