Lift station spills 4,500 gallons of raw sewage near popular Sarasota park

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story included incorrect information about how much raw sewage spilled.

For the second time in four months, thousands of gallons of raw sewage spewed from a lift station a few blocks to the east of Nathan Benderson Park.

According to a public notice of pollution released by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on Wednesday, the spill occurred just after 8 a.m. Wednesday when debris entangled the master lift station’s floats that are used to control the pumps.

About 4,500 gallons of raw sewage leaked out the top of the lift station and went into a retention pond. Staff was able to recover approximately 30,000 gallons of raw sewage and surface water combined.

“Surface waters were impacted, so sampling has been initiated,” the DEP report states. “Clean up notifications are proceeding per protocol. The operations staff is initiating chemical addition at this location to assist with debris control.”

In November, more than 5,000 gallons of sewage from the same lift station spilled and all of it made its way into the same retention pond. The cause of that spill was a damaged control circuit caused by human error.

Earlier this month, a few blocks to the west of Nathan Benderson Park, 170,000 gallons of reclaimed water, which is treated sewer water, spilled from a broken pipe. More than 30,000 gallons of that water spilled into a nearby canal.

In December, 22,500 gallons of sewage spilled just southeast of Newton Estates Park and within a residential area. More than 4,000 gallons spilled into a nearby drainage ditch.

To put the spills into perspective, the average sized home pool holds about 20,000 gallons of water.

This story was originally published February 27, 2020 at 7:51 AM.