Multiple sewage failures in Manatee County blamed on tropical storm, officials say

The outer bands of Tropical Storm Cristobal dumped several inches of rain in Manatee County and state officials say that is the reason for four sewage line failures in Manatee County.

There was one spill late Saturday, and three more on Sunday.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection, which released a public notice of pollution late Monday, also reported a 300-gallon spill in Sarasota, half of which drained into Sarasota Bay. The bay suffered an 800,000-gallon sewage spill last week.

DEP reported the first sewage spill took place at about 11 p.m. Saturday in Palmetto and that some of the sewage made its way into the Manatee River.

The spill took place in the 8500 block of 69th Street East. State officials estimate more than 1,000 gallons spilled after the system was overwhelmed with “excessive rainfall from Tropical Storm Cristobal.”

DEP acknowledged that due to the system being overwhelmed, “No volume estimate is possible (other than more than 1,000 gallons) at the current time due to wastewater operations staff concentrating on maintaining field operations.”

The system was brought back on line at 4 a.m. Sunday.

At around 2 p.m.Sunday, the system located in the 5100 block of 65th Street West in Bradenton was overwhelmed under the same conditions. Again, the state could only estimate “greater than 1,000 gallons” of “partially treated wastewater” escaped Manatee County’s Southwest Water Reclamation Facility.

An hour later, a system failure occurred at the county’s lift station in the 4200 block of 70th Street Circle East in Palmetto,with the same estimate of at least 1,000 gallons.

Just after midnight on Sunday, the county’s collection system in the 4800 block of 69th Street West in Bradenton was overwhelmed due to heavy rains and again, the state could only estimate the spill at more than 1,000 gallons due to the heavy rain and standing water.