Sewage break prompts Longboat Key resident concerns

The town was required to submit materials to the state about June’s sewage break.

By Mark Bergin
| 4:00 p.m. July 17, 2020

Sarasota Bay is pictured Tuesday, July 14, 2020, near Susan Veshosky's home on Spanish Drive North. She does not think the "foul" smell is related to the June sewage break. Photo Courtesy of Susan Veshosky.

Longboat Key
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Monday marked the deadline for the town of Longboat Key to submit several reports to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection following June’s sewage line break in a patch of mangroves east of Sarasota Bay.

The town was required to submit wastewater flow data; a detailed timeline of events leading up to the spill; capital investment plans for the last three years; an updated sewer overflow response plan; and a capacity, management, operation and maintenance program plan.

The DEP uses Directive 923 to calculate the appropriate penalty, if any is required. It’s unclear how long it will take the state to evaluate the materials and determine whether to penalize the town.

“The length of time to review varies depending on the amount of data submitted,” DEP spokesperson Shannon Herbon wrote in an email.

The town of Longboat Key began collecting water samples on July 1 at six sites from one side of Sarasota Bay to the other. The town hired Environmental Science Associates as an independent contractor to help conduct the water quality tests.

On July 16, ESA principal associate Dr. David Tomasko wrote a nine-page email to Longboat Key Public Works Director Isaac Brownman and his staff about the water sampling efforts from July 1-13.

“The nearshore waters of Sarasota Bay closest to the location of the sewage spill are not substantially impacted by that spill,” Tomasko wrote.

However, Tomasko wrote that areas more than two miles away for the spill had “substantially higher” levels of enterococci and fecal coliform bacteria compared to the part of Sarasota Bay closest to the sewage spill. Ongoing work will determine if higher levels are due to human sewage or decomposing macroalgae and seagrass blades. Macroalgae and seagrass blades can also give rise to elevated values of indicator bacteria.

No direct connection has been made between the spill and rafts of muck spotted on both side of the bay.

On June 29, town officials reported to state regulators an estimated 25.8 million gallons of untreated sewage might have spilled in the break of the 20-inch pipe, which gathers sewage from the entire town and pushes it east from a pumping station on Gulf Bay Road. A subsequent statement from the town said that estimate is likely high and there was no indication what percentage of the spill made it from the coastal area into the bay. An independent testing firm is looking to provide an updated estimate. It is unknown how much of the discharge ended up in Sarasota Bay.

The pipe, which broke underground about 100 yards landward of the bay's shoreline, was repaired on June 30. It terminates at a treatment facility next to the Manatee County Golf Course in Bradenton.

If the DEP decides to fine the town, Longboat Key Revitalization Task Force Chairman Tom Freiwald said he believes the town should pay the amount in full.

“We’ve been worried about that sewer line for years,” Freiwald said. “Whatever the Department of Environmental Protection comes up with is what we should do financially. I think that we should do that and not make a big fuss about it.”

Freiwald said he believes there’s “no question” the town needs to replace the line after June’s break, especially after the town considered replacing the pipe a few years ago.

“We owe it to all the communities that are affected by any kind of spills in the bay,” Freiwald said. “We have an obligation to make that pipe as safe as we can possibly make it. At the same time, I don’t think we need to bring in 25 contractors and start digging tomorrow. It’s gotta be a high-priority project, but well-put together [and] well-thought out.”

Freiwald’s neighbor Susan Veshosky said she supports Town Manager Tom Harmer’s proposal to “advance the redundant pipe project” as part of Longboat Key’s post-leak plan.

“We need to look at that and replace what’s there,” Veshosky said. “This bay is a livelihood for so many people. We don’t want to pollute it.”

Pipe history

1973-1975: Crews used an open-trench cut across the bottom of Sarasota Bay to install the 20-inch force main. The depth of the pipe varies between 2-8 feet. The pipe has been in use since 1975.

2007 & 2011: The town retained Dive-Tech International, Inc. to conduct an underwater inspection of the force main. The divers found the pipe “appeared to be in good external condition with adequate coverage along the length of the pipe,” according to what Longboat Key Client Service Manager Laura Baumberger told town commissioners at a June 1, 2020, meeting.

2014: The town began planning to build a new force main by hiring a design criteria professional. The town also considered several different alignments and construction methods for a new pipeline.

2015: A design-build team was assembled to design and construct a new force main.

“At that time, it was thought, again, that the pipe may be nearing the end of its life and there was a lot of development that was beginning on the Manatee County side of the Bay with Long Bar Point,” Baumberger said. “So they felt it was prudent to get the new force main in before the new development occurred and because of the age of the pipe.”

June 2016: Consultant Greely & Hansen revealed the results of a six-month study about the pipe. The results of the study prompted commissioners to set aside plans to spend around $25 million on a new sewage line from the island to the mainland. The study found the pipeline was in better-than-expected shape and had 20-25 years of service remaining. Pipes typically have a 50-year lifetime.

2016-2017: Before moving forward with design construction of the force main, the town conducted another inspection of the pipe in 2016 and 2017.

“This inspection was more detailed, and it was done using a technology called SmartBall pipe wall assessment, which involved a traveling ball that was sent through the pipeline while it was in service to assess the internal condition of the pipe to determine if there [were] air pockets, which can lead to corrosion and pipe fitting, and also was used to try to estimate the pipe wall thickness,” Baumberger said. “This inspection concluded that the existing pipe had up to 20 years of life remaining. And therefore, the new force main project was put on hold at that time.”

2018-2019: The town decided to take another look at the pipeline construction methodology to see if an open cut could be permitted, Baumberger said.

Baumberger said the town made this decision because the assessment concluded the pipe had additional life remaining, but also recognized it was a “high-risk pipe.”

If there is a single point of failure in the pipe, the town has no other options to get wastewater off of the island.

The town met with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the FDEP in 2017 and 2019. Project site assessments began in 2018 and 2019.

June 18, 2020: Longboat Key and Manatee County utilities staff experience potential meter issues on flow readings.

June 29, 2020: Town officials report to state regulators that an estimated 25.8 million gallons of untreated sewage might have spilled in the break of the 20-inch pipe.

June 30, 2020: The pipe gets repaired late in the day.

July 1, 2020: The town begins quality testing with the help of independent contractor Environmental Science Associates.

July 20, 2020: The town’s deliverables are due to the FDEP about the sewage break. The state will review the materials to determine whether to penalize the town.