Station failure spills 5,500 gallons of raw sewage in Sarasota

SARASOTA COUNTY — A lift station failure caused about 5,500 gallons of raw sewage to spill into a closed pond Sunday in the 7200 block of Bounty Drive in the Sarasota Gulf Gate neighborhood.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection issued a notice about the spill that happened around 11:55 a.m. on the southwest corner of the station.

According to the report:

The station was found in high water and none of the three pumps were operational. This caused the discharge of approximately 5,500 gallons that could not be recovered. A by-pass pump was turned on and the station pumps were reset.

The cause of the failure is unknown, the report said. Samples were taken, but the area could not be limed because of rainfall.

The incident ended about an hour after it was discovered at 12:53 p.m.

On May 2 nearly 800 gallons of raw sewage leaked into a Sarasota County neighborhood.

Special Report: Sewer Crisis in Florida

The county is being sued by environmental groups after hundreds of millions of gallons of processed wastewater was discharged without a proper permit since 2013 from a storage pond at its Bee Ridge Wastewater Reclamation Facility on Lorraine Road.

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