BRADENTON — About 3.5 million gallons of raw sewage escaped from a broken pipe during a smelly episode last month, according to a Bradenton city official.

On the morning of June 14, a 30-inch diameter sewer pipe fractured, sending floods of sewage into the area around the city’s wastewater plant and through storm drains to the Manatee River.

It took 13 hours of emergency repairs, but the city did get the pipe repaired. It is now functioning perfectly, said Claude Tankersley, director of the city of Bradenton Public Works & Utilities Department.

“We’re not sure what happened, and we probably never will be,” he said Wednesday. “The system broke, and it’s repaired; we’re all up and running again as it should be.”

The river was temporarily off-limits to recreational activity, like fishing or swimming, but the incident caused no permanent damage to the environment, said Tim McCann, Bradenton’s public information officer.