Longboat Key sewer line started leaking on June 17. Town waited 12 days to tell the state

Longboat Key officials knew the town’s major sewer line was leaking raw sewage into Sarasota Bay on June 17, but town officials did not notify state environmental officials or the public until this past Monday.

The line carries 2 million gallons of sewage daily to Manatee County’s wastewater treatment facility, which means as much as 28 million gallons of raw sewage streamed through the broken line from the time the leak was detected until it was repaired Tuesday night.

By law, the town was required to report the spill within 24 hours so the state could issue a public notice of pollution. said Justin Bloom, founder of Suncoast Waterkeepers, the agency responsible for issuing notices for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. “They did a really bad job informing the public.”

A report submitted to the state on Monday says the leak was detected June 17.

Bloom said Longboat Key officials not only failed to submit a report on time, the report lacked required information. An estimate of the overall sewage spill and potential environmental impact are supposed to be included, but it was not.

DEP officials did not immediately return a request for comment.

“We need to know what happened,” Bloom said. “That didn’t happen and still hasn’t happened. ... I still haven’t seen anything else from them, and they seem to be hiding.”

Bloom monitored the town’s regular city commission meeting Tuesday night.

“The town seems to be circling its wagons,” Bloom said. “They had a regular meeting (Tuesday) night and they didn’t talk about the spill until the end. All they said is no one should be talking to the public and that they were planning to hire an attorney. The town manager said the leak had been stopped, but that was the only announcement.”

Assistant Town Manager Susan Phillips has been issuing press releases since the town acknowledged the leak on Monday. But she said Wednesday she isn’t the right person to discuss the delay in reporting or the extent of the leak. No one else from the town immediately returned calls for comment.

Bloom said the state will need to investigate what happened and why it took Longboat Key so long to report the spill before any kind of consequences can be determined

“But depending on what happened, there could be significant enforcement actions taken,” Bloom said.

The break occurred on the mainland in an area of thick mangroves near the Aqua by the Bay development project spearheaded by Carlos Beruff’s Medallion Homes.

At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday , the town updated its website to announce that repairs had been completed, but officials didn’t provide any further information to the public regarding the overall impact of the sewer line break.

“We appreciate your cooperation in conserving water use to assist the town’s efforts, and thank you for your patience during this emergency incident,” the website states.

This story was originally published July 1, 2020 at 12:10 PM.