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County Water Services Department Catches A Break

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By PAUL CATALA The Sun

The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 10, 2008

The winding detour, sandy-covered streets, rattling machinery and stifling stench of flowing, raw sewage should now be a thankfully-buried part of Sun City Center's past.

For the past three weeks, sewer breaks off West Del Webb Boulevard between Bunker Hill and Danbury drives have kept residents and visitors' heads and stomachs in knots, as repairs to the system and roads have been made.

Throughout last week, crews with Hillsborough County's Water Resource Services (WRS) and contracted agencies finished installing 20 feet of a 12-inch-round PVC pipeline, completing the repair of two sewer breaks in the old terra cotta clay pipeline installed in the early 1960s.

Initially, when the breaks were reported to Hillsborough County's water department, residents complained the department was pumping raw sewage from the broken pipes directly into Middle Lake, lined by waterfront homes.

Dave Brown, a resident on Burlington Circle, said he and his neighbors were concerned that through lawn watering, traces of raw sewage would end up on lawns, endangering visiting children or guests who play on the grass.

WRS had originally pumped around 200,000 gallons of mostly groundwater out of the sewer pipe corridor and into Middle Lake for more than 60 hours. According to the department, at the time, the water pumped into the lake had "elevated levels of fecal coli form bacteria" in it. Although called a "lake," Middle Lake is actually a manmade, 5-acre retention pond excavated for the community.

After the pumping situation was brought to the attention of the county, the pumped water was diverted from the lake, pumped to a station about 50 yards away and sent to the water treatment plant about a mile away, on the west side of Interstate 75.

Since the pumping, through water analysis completed Nov. 26, the Environmental Protection Commission (EPC) of Hillsborough County has determined there wasn't enough raw sewage or untreated water pumped into the lake to cause concern.

Jeff Sklut, an environmental specialist with the EPC in Tampa, said water samples were taken at five locations around the lake. He said the only abnormal readings were associated with toxins that would be commonly found in any manmade retention pond.

"I didn't see anything that indicated that discharge from the excavation area impacted that body of water. There's nothing to be concerned with; what's there is part of the standard retention system," said Sklut, who's been with the commission for eight years. "But there's always going to be runoff problems at any of these sites."

The problem with the potential discharge of raw sewage into the irrigation system began Nov. 23, when a break in the old clay pipes under the 1400 block between Bunker Hill and Danbury caused water to run in reverse.

Brown, who won the Hillsborough County Moral Courage Award for his community activism Oct. 15, said he was concerned the excavation of 17 feet to where the break occurred would cause untreated sewage water to flow into the lake. Water from it is used for lawn irrigation and he thought it might end up on lawns via sprinkler systems.

Preliminary laboratory results from WRS showed elevated levels of fecal coli form bacteria present at the well points, but at the time it was taken, it wasn't possible to determine if the bacteria came from the leaking pipeline.

Now that results from the EPC analysis have been disclosed, Brown said he's satisfied with what's been done. He said he wonders how many other communities around the county might have had similar incidents, but no one reported them.

As of Tuesday, Brown said he saw crews installing fiberglass pipelines. He said he requested to see the results of the samples taken by the EPC, but wasn't able to and has yet to see them.

Even though results were negative for unusually high contamination, Sklut said the county would continue to frequently monitor the Middle Lake through underground video technology.

West Del Webb Boulevard resident Jeanette Kroog said she was glad to find out the situation should be under control. She said it hasn't been pleasant living in the area under certain aromatic and impractical driving conditions.

Reporter Paul Catala can be reached at (813) 865-1554 or pcatala@mediageneral.com

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