Stay Informed
Sewage Pipe burst in Southern Florida
Friday, September 2, 2011
By Jamie Rodgers- Emerald
Coastkeeper
Earlier this month on Monday August
15th off of Greenbriar Blvd. a 12" Force Main
pipe leading to the Central Water Reclamation
Facility of ECUA busted, expelling 1.4 million
gallons of untreated sewage into the wetlands
by Thompson Bayou just behind the Scenic Hills
Golf Course on HWY 90. The same incident was
previously reported on June 22nd in that
general area expelling 2.2 million gallons of
untreated sewage. Tankers were used at that
time to transport the wastewater into an
additional lift station as a clean-up effort.
The second time, they were able to respond much
faster and emergency crews and tanker trucks
were immediately dispatched to the affected
site to help contain the
spill.
As of that morning a temporary by-pass
line was completed and the discharge was
stopped. The by-pass will stay in use until the
main is replaced permanently. ECUA has been
very cooperative and has working hard to fix
the problem. I have been informed that the
engineers for ECUA are currently looking into
replacing that line with a pipe made of HDPE,
High-Density Polyurethane. It is an on-going,
welded pipe with no joints or connectors, so
there would be fewer opportunities for “weak
spots” in the line.
Test results came back after just a
few days showing bacteria levels falling back
to normal, and the following Monday the
advisory was lifted.