Bradenton sends more than 10 million gallons of sewage into river after equipment failure

The city of Bradenton was forced to send more than 10.3 million gallons of “partially treated” sewage into the Manatee River earlier this week, after equipment became overloaded. It was the second time in less than a week the city was forced to spill sewage into the river before it was completely treated.

On Sept. 10, the city blamed heavy rains for a “solids overload.” affecting the filtration system at the city’s water reclamation plant on First Street West near downtown Bradenton. The city sent 1.1 million gallon of partially treated sewage from the facility and into the river.

The same problem happened Sunday and as a result, the city through Monday evening had to divert 10.36 million gallons, almost 10 times as much as in the incident last week, according to a public notice of pollution sent to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Jeannie Roberts, communications coordinator for the city, said “partially treated”means that the wastewater had received two levels of treatment prior to being bypassed to the river.

Roberts said the filter was the third and final treatment and the partially treated sewage “had to be bypassed for the time it takes to unclog the denitrification filter.”

Public Works Director Jim McClellan said with rains like Bradenton has dealt with over the past several days, it’s not necessarily a single-day event when the system is overwhelmed. McClellan said it takes a long time for all that rain to make it from the edges of the city to the water plant, “and then additional heavy rains on top of that can cause a system back-up.”

As a result of what happened, the city will be required to conduct water quality testing and report the results to the state.

This story was originally published September 15, 2020 at 1:41 PM.