Sewage spills threaten our fishery
In this column, I express my love of fishing and the outdoors. Through these articles, I have the opportunity to share that passion with a wider audience.
My aim is to disseminate the information I’ve gleaned from years on the water to help readers have a more rewarding experience and introduce them to some of the guides and organizations that support the resource we cherish. As I’ve mentioned before, I feel an obligation to address issues that will affect fishing for this and future generations. Water quality is, I believe, far and away the most pressing issue today. You’ve read in this column about the efforts of Sarasota Bay Watch to educate the public about clean waters with restocking efforts (one million clams in 2020), the Florida Coastal Conservation Association’s (CCA) decades-long mission to protect our coastal fisheries and Suncoast Waterkeeper’s efforts to hold municipalities accountable for provisions of The Clean Water Act. Recent negative impacts to Sarasota Bay – and therefore our fishing future – loom large. If we are to make sure our children and future generations have the opportunities we’ve had, we’ll need to address them now. Recent events demonstrate the issue.
On June 2, a Manatee County contractor, Pospiech Contracting, punctured a 4-inch force main sewage pipe at the intersection of 34th Street West and 60th Avenue West in Bradenton. The damage resulted in the release of an estimated 1.2 million gallons of untreated sewage near the campus of State College of Florida. The initial estimates (generally high) showed that as many as 810,000 gallons may have reached Sarasota Bay, according to the Manatee County Utilities Department.
The spill collected in a retention pond that overflowed into stormwater piping that eventually flows into Sarasota Bay, according to the report.
The sewage flowed from the rupture from approximately 12:30 p.m. until it was stopped at 6:15 p.m., when efforts began to recover the discharged wastewater. The damaged force main was reported to have been repaired by 10:30 p.m. The county is required to submit a report to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection within 24 hours, and typically the county estimates the number of gallons spilled higher than the actual level that is ultimately calculated. Officials believe that 240,000 gallons were recovered and estimated that not all of the balance reached the bay.
While researching for this article I visited the DEP’s Pollution Notice Portal where four notices were posted from Manatee County on June 7, 2020. The notices all credited the excessive rainfall with contributing to the releases of untreated or partially treated wastewater, at least one of which reached the Manatee River. These releases, often attributed to excessive flooding, are not inevitable but result from a myriad of issues including aging infrastructure which can be exacerbated by what we put down our drains. Large sanitary wipes and grease, including fats and oils, all contribute to the problem.
