A week after Fort Myers sewage spill: Why weren't citizens warned? Is there coronavirus in sewage?

More than a week after a broken lift station sent 183,000 gallons of raw sewage down Manuels Branch toward the Caloosahatchee, it’s not yet clear whether Fort Myers will face a fine for the failure.

“During its regulatory review, (the state’s Department of Environmental Protection) will be looking into the city’s response actions in regards to this spill,” said spokeswoman Alexandra Kuchta. “Raw sewage contains pathogens, which is why facilities have emergency plans in place to respond to and mitigate wastewater releases.”

Neither Fort Myers Mayor Randy Henderson nor City Manager Saeed Kazemi have publicly acknowledged the spill, which is likely the biggest in the city’s history, despite The News-Press' multiple requests for comment by phone and email.

Significant spill:183,000 gallons of raw sewage flow through McGregor Boulevard neighborhood in Fort Myers

In 2018, after Hurricane Irma, the DEP fined the city $22,190.25 for discharging 35,000 of raw sewage into Billy’s Creek. Last week’s spill was more that five times that amount.

After the spill, which flowed through neighborhood backyards and a city park, workers spread powdered lime, and hired a contractor to apply 60 gallons of GreenClean® Liquid 5.0, which works to oxygenate the water and kill microbes including bacteria, fungi and algae. The city installed nano-bubble aeration technology to reduce nutrients and bacteria levels, spokeswoman Stephanie Schaffer said. “The treatment applied contains food-grade peroxide and oxygen is a byproduct of the process.”

The city’s aging, chronically troubled sewage system worries Calusa Waterkeeper John Cassani, who’s concerned it may not be ready for the upcoming hurricane season.  

The city’s waterways that flow to the river and ultimately the Gulf are all plagued with "high (fecal bacteria) levels in places like Billy's Creek, Whiskey Creek and Manuels Branch over long periods of time,” Cassani said. “I don't see much public notification of that other than the generic and occasional no swimming signs.”

The spill also raises alarm about the potential spread of coronavirus and other infectious microbes, including from KC Schulberg, the nonprofit Calusa Waterkeeper’s executive director.

“According to the Lancet (the British scientific journal) it appears that after an infected patient has recovered and tested negative, the virus can remain viable in the patient's intestines and lower bowel and be excreted through feces for five to six weeks,” Schulberg wrote in an email. “This may compound the gravity of aging infrastructure and spills. Think of the implications of that for sewage leaks, for our wastewater treatment plants, for flooding of wastewater facilities and for the biosolids we commonly spread over our agricultural lands.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is still gathering information on whether sewage can spread the virus: “Transmission of COVID-19 through sewage may be possible (but) there is no evidence to date that this has occurred.”

SARS, a similar virus, “has been detected in untreated sewage for up to 2 to 14 days,” the agency reports. “In the 2003 SARS outbreak, there was documented transmission associated with sewage aerosols. Data suggest that standard municipal wastewater system chlorination practices may be sufficient to inactivate coronaviruses, as long as utilities monitor ... chlorine during treatment to ensure it has not been depleted.”

More:Historic Fort Myers Billy's Creek has been 'frighteningly' polluted for at least 15 years

Fort Myers’ sewage system is scheduled for an upgrade over the next five years, Schaffer said. “The entire water collection and distribution system, the water treatment plant and both the Central Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility and the South Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facilities are being rehabilitated with a $300 million investment by the city.”

Beyond the need for repairs, the post-spill communication – or its lack of –  troubles City Councilman Fred Burson for another reason: “It happened on a Monday and I learned about it on Thursday in The News-Press," he said. "It’s just not fair to the citizens. Anybody who has anything to do with that water should have been alerted. I’m not blaming anybody insofar as the system failure – the system is old,” Burson said, “but they could have sent out a public notice on Monday to say, ‘Hey we’ve had this happen and please conduct yourself accordingly."

Ward 4 Councilman Kevin Anderson, who was out of the country when it happened, returned to news of the spill posted on the NextDoor app online. Normally, ”I would have expected a call immediately from the city manager apprising me of the situation,” Anderson said. “I like to be able to have the information and be able to initiate the information-sharing - to be proactive – (but) we’re in very uncharted waters right now,” he said. “I hate to blast the city staff at a time like this.”

Councilwoman Teresa Watkins Brown gives city officials a COVID-19 pass. "Yes, we all should have been notified and told about it, but with us being under this coronavirus pandemic ... it was just everything else that was going on," she said. Usually, "(Kazemi) is good about telling us what is going on out there. If there was an oversight, it’s because we have so much going on with this other issue."