Fifty-five hundred gallons of raw sewage spilled into a Sarasota County neighborhood on Sunday morning. That’s just days after a blocked sewer pipe spilled another 800 gallons of untreated wastewater into another neighborhood.
And get this, the county is already facing a lawsuit for discharging hundreds of millions of gallons of wastewater without a permit.
Neighbors say they’re worried about the possibility of another spill.
“That smell is putrid, makes you sick,” said Robert Galasinski, whose home leads to a lift station that handles raw sewage. “It doesn’t bother me…only bothers me when a spill comes.”
The county says an electrical failure in a control building Sunday caused three pumps to fail, spilling the stinky sewage water onto an open field.
“When I took the dogs out, I noticed such an odor it grabbed me in the throat," Galasinski said. "I looked around thought there was a dead animal.”
County workers have been making repairs at the lift station and taking samples of the wastewater still visible on the ground. White paint marks how far the water reached.
“The contamination -- that’s what I worry about," Galasinski said.
The county says the station is trying to figure out what caused the electrical failure, so officials can make improvements and prevent another spill.
"My concerns are if it overflows again during a storm, is the sewage going to come this way?" Galasinski wondered. "It’s scary.”
Galasinski rests a little easier knowing there’s a large field that gives him a buffer between his Gulf Gate home and the affected lift station.
Sarasota County says Sunday’s spill is not connected to the Wastewater Reclamation Facility in the lawsuit. The county says it is aware of the lawsuit, and it is committed to improving its utility infrastructure as water quality is a top priority.
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