Hey Oats!!! Got room for one more on GTF out of here bus?
Update: 3:40 p.m.: The Emerald Coast Utilities Authority has stopped discharging untreated and partially treated waste water into the Escambia River, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection said today.
Brandy Smith said this afternoon that ECUA officials had reported to her that all wastewater entering the utility's Cantonment waste water treatment plant was being treated, though an unknown amount of untreated and partially treated waste water was still being discharged from an overflow pond at the facility.
"Right now, they are treating everything that's coming in," she said, though she added that the situation was "dynamic" and could change. ECUA officials had said earlier this afternoon that untreated and partially treated waste water was being discharged from the plant at the rate of as much as 12 million gallons per day.
Update, 2:50 p.m.: The Emerald Coast Utilities Authority is discharging untreated and partially treated waste water into the Escambia River at the rate of as much as 12 million gallons per day, an ECUA spokeswoman has confirmed.
Nathalie Bowers said this afternoon that the utility was still discharging wastewater from its Cantonment waste water treatment plant, at a rate of between nine and 12 million gallons per day. Bowers had said earlier this morning that the treatment plant was back in operation and treating at normal levels.
Brandy Smith, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, subsequently told the News Journal that the ECUA was still discharging into the wetlands surrounding the plant. When asked about the apparent conflict this afternoon, Bowers said that she "might not have had" all the available information.
A health advisory issued in response to the discharge remains in effect for the area of Escambia River south of Becks Lake Road, in the north end of the county. In a press release issued this morning, the Florida Department of Health advised area residents to avoid any water-related activities, due to the potential for dangerously high bacteria levels.
The original story:
"Millions of gallons" of raw and partially treated wastewater were discharged into the Escambia River Wednesday, after historic rainfall crippled the Emerald Coast Utility Authority's waste water treatment plant, a local health official said today.
Dr. John Lanza, director of the Escambia County Health Department, said he didn't know how much water had been discharged. However, both he and ECUA Executive Director Steve Sorrell estimated it to be in the "millions of gallons."
The plant is now back in operation and treating sewage at normal levels, ECUA spokeswoman Natalie Bowers said this morning. Both she and Sorrell stressed that the majority of water discharged from the facility had been partially treated, though Bowers said about 10 percent of the effluent had been raw sewage.
The discharge led officials to issue a health alert Friday for the area of Escambia River south of Becks Lake Road, in the north end of the county. In a press release issued this morning, the Florida Department of Health advised area residents to avoid any water-related activities, due to the potential for dangerously high bacteria levels.
Dale Perkins, an ECUA board member, said yesterday that the Central Water Reclamation Facility, a $316 million plant that is Escambia County's largest public works project ever, was already "running at double capacity" when an overflow occurred over a period of several hours starting late Wednesday morning.
"It just got overwhelmed," Perkins said.
Board chairman Larry Walker said Wednesday evening that the plant was built to process 20 to 30 million gallons of sewage per day. During the height of this week's flooding, on Wednesday, it was handling close to 50 million gallons per day.
In a statement released Friday, Sorrell said the plant managers had made a "conscious decision" to accept the additional effluent.
"We could have restricted flows into the plant and kept it in operation, treating a fraction of the overall influent," he said, "but this would have caused stormwater and sanitary sewer water overflows everywhere. It was considered to be a much better decision to centralize the maximum influent at one location, provide minimal treatment ... and then discharge the flows to a wetlands area, which ultimately flows to the Escambia River."
Sorrell added that the decision to do so had been made in coordination with the Department of Health and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
"Essentially we have been pumping huge amounts of stormwater from downtown and populated areas, (and) draining the flooded areas purposely to avoid overflows throughout the county," Sorrell said.
The discharge is the first in the four-year history of the plant, located in Gonzalez in northern Escambia County. It occurred when rain caused an overflow of the plant's 92.5-million gallon storage facility for sewage that hasn't been fully treated.
On Friday, Sorrell said he still did not know how much had entered the wetlands surrounding the plant.
The ECUA didn't mention the discharge Wednesday when it issued a mandatory boil water notice in Escambia County. That's because the boil water notice didn't involve the plant, Bowers said. "The notice is related to drinking water and the broken pipe at Scenic Highway. The plant doesn't produce drinking water."
A health alert was not issued until Friday morning, close to 48 hours after Perkins said the discharge first began. Sorrell said Friday that the ECUA procedure was to notify the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Health Department immediately in the event of a discharge.
ECUA board member Lois Benson defended the utility's workers and their performance during the flooding. "I think it's easy to point the finger," she said Thursday, "but in this case it's wrong to criticize true public servants who were working hard to make the best of a bad situation."
Both Benson and Perkins said the discharge did not give them concerns about the future worthiness of the plant.
"It was a water event on a Biblical scale," said Benson. "These were all systems that failed under incredible pressure."
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