Heavy rains blamed for Bradenton-area sewage failures that dumped 150,000 gallons in waters

Thursday’s deluge that dropped about 3 1.2 inches of rain is being blamed for several raw sewage spills across the Bradenton area totaling more than 150,000 gallons.

According to a flurry of public notices of pollution sent to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection beginning Friday, the largest spill of around 54,000 gallons of sewage occurred at 7:30 Thursday night from a sewer line manhole at the intersection of 53rd Avenue East and Fourth Street East in Manatee County.

The overflow affected a nearby lift station and the county was able to get the system under control just before midnight. “Crews were unable to perform additional cleanup due to areas of localized flooding,” according to the report.

The county believes sewage got into a nearby retention pond, but crews also were unable to access the pond due to the storms to perform water quality testing at the time.

A second incident reports that a spill began around 6 p.m. Thursday in the 5300 block of Seventh Street East. An estimated 24,000 gallons of raw sewage spilled into a nearby drainage ditch that drains into Palm Lake. The spill was stopped about two hours later, but the city reports that further cleanup of the sewage was impossible due to heavy runoff.

Samples were collected from Palm Lake for testing.

A Sarasota County spill of about 25,000 gallons of sewage seeped from a broken force main sewage line in the 2500 block of Dr. Martin Luther King Way on Thursday morning. The spill was first detected around 11:30 a.m. before heavy rains. The county believes about 7,000 gallons escaped into a nearby retention pond and testing is underway.

At around 7:15 p;m. Thursday in the 5500 block of Bahia Vista Street in Sarasota County, 54,000 gallons of sewage spilled into a nearby stormwater structure and the county believes 16,000 gallons was recovered. Testing of the nearby pond is underway.

Manatee County reported that about 7:30 p.m. Thursday, a 24,000-gallon spill in the area of the 1600 block of 63rd Avenue East. The sewage made its way into Bowlees Creek. County staff say the infrastructure pumping system was overwhelmed by the heavy rains and sampling on the creek was conducted.