Spill sent 1M gallons of sewage toward Banana River

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Brevard spilled more than 1 million gallons of sewage into the lagoon. By Jim Waymer. Posted May 16, 2016

Brevard County had to diver more than 1 million gallons of sewage into a canal Wednesday that connects with the Banana River.Lagoon.(Photo: Jim Waymer)

More than 1 million gallons of raw sewage went into a canal that leads to the Banana River, after an old sewer pipe broke last week on South Patrick Drivenear the border ofSatellite Beach and Indian Harbour Beach.

"It"s 20-year-old pipe," said Don Walker, spokesman for Brevard County. "It"s kind of a problemwe"ve got all over the county."

To prevent sewage backups athomes and businesses, the county diverted 688,000 gallons of raw sewage into a pond near Sea Park Elementary School and 1.05 milliongallons of raw sewageinto Anchor Drive Canal, which connects with the Banana River.

Last week"srepair of theleaking sewer force main was complicated by excessive inflow ofgroundwater in the excavation area, county officials said, because it was so close to a canal.The pipe was 9 feetunderground.

Utility staff and two contractors worked around the clock for 38 hours, county officials said.

"After the first 24 hours, the ability to store and/or haul sewage was exhausted, so thedecision was made to divert sewage to a nearby canal to prevent backups into streets, home orbusinesses," County Manager Stockton Whitten said via email. "Additional staff and equipment wasbrought in to complete the repair as quickly as possible."

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Signs warning of contaminated waterremained up this week at the Sea Park pond and at the Anchor Drive canal.

"Signs are up until water quality samples return to normal levels," Walker said.

A similar spill happened in the same area of South Patrick Drive in November 2012. The countyleaked sewage into the same canal when a pipe failed. Apipe discharged 60,000 gallons of sewage for several hours on the west side of South PatrickDrive, until the pipe could be sealed.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection at the time found no wrongdoing, so itdid not fine the county.

Last week"s leak was the third major sewage incident the county has had this year.

Brevard County must pay $4,100 in state civil penalties and investigation costs for two wastewater dischargesin February one that ultimately flowed to the St. Sebastian River, whichempties into the Indian River Lagoon, and the other into a canal that flows to the St. Johns River.

On Feb. 2, the county"s Barefoot Bay wastewater treatment planthad an unauthorizeddischarge of 281,000 gallons of partially treated wastewater.Operator error resulted in the wastewater entering a canal that flows fourmiles to the St. Sebastian River, a tributary of the Indian River Lagoon.

"This partially treated wastewater was not raw sewage and was waiting for final filtering inpreparation for use on the Barefoot Bay golf course," Whitten said.

Then, on Feb. 24, the South Central Wastewater Treatment Plant in Viera, water had to be divertedto holding ponds thatalready were almost full. The subsequent over flow resulted in 1.5 milliongallons of "treated reclaimed water" being discharged to a canal which flows to the St. JohnsRiver.

The county entered a May 3 consent order that includes paying $4,000 in civil penalties and $100to cover the cost DEPincurred whileinvestigating the two February incidents.

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Neither of the two Februaryincidents involved the discharge of raw sewage, county officialsemphasized.

But reclaimed water and partially treated sewage contain pathogens, and can be high in nitrogen and phosphorus that triggeralgae blooms, which cause fish kills.

Brevard Countyis spending $134 million on a 10-year water and wastewater system improvements in aconstant race against aging sewage infrastructure.

"We cant predict when pipes will break or leak," Walker said via email. "We are initiating a task order with one of our consulting firms to look at options for reducing the likelihood of future breaks/leaks of this force main."

Contact Waymer at 321-242-3663 or jwaymer@floridatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter @JWayEnviro

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Source: http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/environment/2016/05/16/spill-sent-1m-gallons-sewage-toward-banana-river/84449254/