Longboat Key pipe may have dumped 28 million gallons of sewage into Sarasota Bay
LONGBOAT KEY — Left unaddressed for nearly two weeks, a leak from a Longboat Key sewage pipe spilled an estimated 26 to 28 million gallons of sewage into Sarasota Bay from the town’s aging sewage line, a Florida Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman said.
The DEP will investigate the spill and hold Longboat Key “accountable by identifying necessary restoration and remediation actions,” agency spokeswoman Shannon Herbon said in an email response shared by the environmental group Suncoast Waterkeeper.
That includes fines and penalties for the violations.
In a press release on Wednesday afternoon, Town Manager Tom Harmer cited an estimate at 25.8 million gallons of sewage spilled, and a much later date for the pipe rupture than the DEP, saying the town notified the state of the spill Monday, when he said the public works director learned of it. He added that the “amount of the discharge is still being quantified.”
Harmer also made reference to potential signs of earlier problems, saying “staff believed there may have been meter and equipment issues causing anomalous flow readings,” though they didn’t “determine there was an actual leak in the pipeline” until Monday.
It’s unclear what effect the rupture of Longboat’s central sewer pipe, which carries about 2 million gallons of sewage to the mainland daily to a Manatee County wastewater treatment facility, will have on water quality ahead of what is expected to be a busy Independence Day weekend, environmentalists say.
Poor water quality has been reported at several beaches in Manatee County, including Manatee Public Beach and Bayfront Park, where a no-swim advisory issued June 25 was lifted Wednesday, state records show. There are no water quality issues in Sarasota County and the most current data was not available by press time.
Longboat Key, the city of Sarasota, DEP and the Suncoast Waterkeeper have all independently taken water quality samples at and around area waterways. Those also were not available by press time.
It’s too early to tell how the untreated sewage will affect water quality, said Justin Bloom, the founder of Suncoast Waterkeeper.
“However, it could explain elevated readings we’re seeing in Manatee County,” he said.
Pipeline repaired
The town’s main sewer transmission pipe takes wastewater under Sarasota Bay to Manatee County’s utility system. The break occurred in a section of pipe on undeveloped land at Long Bar Pointe on the mainland, not where it passes under Sarasota Bay as indicated earlier. The area includes the longest unbroken stretch of mangrove shoreline in Sarasota Bay, and is where the sewage pipe goes underground through a planned development by Carlos Beruff.
The email from the DEP’s Herbon said “the breach appears to have occurred from June 17-30 and the estimated volume discharged is between 26-28 million gallons.”
Harmer said the DEP was notified of the spill at 1 p.m. on Monday and repaired at about 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
Longboat Key’s only wastewater pipe off the island is more than 40 years old and has been a concern of local environmentalists and the town for the last decade. The town was considering replacing the pipe to eliminate the risk of a complete shutdown, which could necessitate using dump trucks to haul sewage off the island.
That effort was halted in 2016 after consultant Greely & Hansen determined that delaying replacing the pipe would be the most cost-effective approach. Replacing the four-mile pipe, half of which runs under the Sarasota Bay, would cost an estimated $20 million.
Greely & Hansen determined the pipe was in good condition and not in danger of failure because no leaks or severely corroded areas were found during the analysis. The study indicated it had a useful life of 20-25 years.
On June 1, town staff outlined a preliminary design and permitting for a backup pipeline, Harmer’s news release stated.
Herbon said the DEP is working closely with the town to address the “causes and possible solutions to prevent unauthorized discharges in the future.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation Tuesday that, in addition to upping pollution fines by 50%, specifies that each day the source of pollution knowingly goes unaddressed will constitute a new offense. It’s unclear whether the law would apply to this spill or what penalties Longboat Key might face.