One of the biggest spills was reported at the South County wastewater treatment facility in Ruskin. About 1.6 million gallons of treated effluent were released due to the heavy rains. Most was contained on the site, but thousand of gallons ended up along Interstate 75.
Sam Elrabi directs the water division of the Hillsborough County Environmental Protection Commission.
"The systems are not designed to handle a hurricane intensity storm, and it is pretty unusual and rare that we have this type of overflow. But systems are not designed to take in that much of intense storm and sustain flow for 24 hours or more," he said. "So I don't want to blame it on infrastructure, but it is pretty unusual for a system to receive this kind of flow."
Elrabi said typically during major storm events, treatment plants sometimes get overwhelmed by the amount of storm water.
"And that storm water typically may not be very clean," he said. "It drags with it lots of sediments, lots of turbidity."
Crews attempt to vacuum up wastewater that spills. But many times, partially treated sewage flows into drains and creeks that lead to rivers and bays.
Here's just a partial list of some areas where waterways were affected:
In Ruskin, filters and reject storage tanks started overflowing at the South County Regional Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility, located at 520 Teco Road. Approximately 1,670,000 gallons of clarifier effluent mixed with process solids were released on the ground. The released mixed with heavy rain which flowed into two deep pits that were construction sites for new clarifiers and onsite stormwater ponds. Approximately 175,000 gallons migrated outside the plant site along I-75. The contaminated area was cleaned up and decontaminated.
Hillsborough County officials said the South County Regional Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility has a design treatment capacity of 10.0 Million Gallons Per Day (MGD), and on average treats approximately 9.0 MGD. During Tropical Storm Debby, the facility documented peak influent flows around 25.0 MGD and sustained flows over 20.0 MGD for over eight hours.
- In Tampa, 270,000 gallons overflowed from a manhole on West Coachman Avenue and from a manhole on Alline Avenue. The overflow discharged into adjacent stormwater inlets. The inlets connect to a stormwater system that discharges into Hillsborough Bay.
- Also in Tampa, about 30,000 gallons overflowed from a manhole near the intersection of Perry Avenue and Charter Street and from a junction chamber in an easement south of Charter Street. The overflow then flowed into the Hillsborough River.
- In Tampa, a wastewater overflow near 2502 N. St. Vincent St. The volume of overflow was estimated at approximately 4,000 gallons. The overflow discharged from a manhole then into a ditch adjacent to the overflow. The ditch flows to a storm culvert that eventually discharges into the Hillsborough River near Cordelia Street.
- In Tampa, a wastewater overflow occurred near 500 S. Himes Ave. The volume of the overflow was estimated at approximately 13,000 gallons. The overflow discharged from manholes and then into an adjacent stormwater inlet. The inlet connects to a stormwater system that flows to the west and eventually discharges into Old Tampa Bay near South Shore Crest Drive and Azeele.
- Much of the more than 1,500 gallons from a wastewater treatment plant in Tampa overflowed into the Hillsborough River.
- Nearly 8,000 gallons overflowed near downtown Tampa and flowed into inlets connected to a storm water system that discharges into Hillsborough Bay.
- In St. Petersburg, 185,000 gallons spilled from overflowing manholes at the St. Petersburg Northeast WRF. Of that, 34,000 gallons were suctioned from downstream manholes. Smacks Bayou received much of that effluent near 54th Ave. N. and Dr. MLK St. N. (Canal 17)
- In St. Petersburg, 62,000 gallons poured into Joe's Creek and Shore Lake.
- In Plant City, an overflow of approximately 500,000 gallons of reclaimed water from the effluent reject pond at the water reclamation facility on Victoria Street flowed into a stormwater ditch connected to Mill Creek.
- Also, Plant City Utilities reported two sanitary overflows caused a lift station and sewer lines to back up. Both overflows entered the East Canal within close proximity of each other. One SSO was from two manholes at the corner of East Cherry Street and North Knight Street with approximately 50,000 gallons spilling out, flowing into a storm drain, and entering the East Canal. The other was from two manholes on North Johnson Street with approximately 15,000 gallons spilling out, flowing into a storm drain, and entering the East Canal.
- In North Port, 1.7 million gallons were released into holding ponds at the city's wastewater treatment plant. Effluent was discharged to the Big Slough Canal's tidal portion.
- Some of the more than 50,000 gallons that spilled from a wastewater treatment plant in Pasco County flowed into Lake Sumner, just east of downtown Dade City.
- In Largo, wastewater flowed to Church Creek, which is part of the McKay Creek drainage basin. Approximately 49,500 was released.
- In Largo, an estimated 45,000 gallons of wastewater were released during and flowed into storm drains leading to Allen Creek.
- In Largo, the Largo WWRF experienced flows of approximately 47 MGD, filling the equalization tank to its storage capacity. To prevent the denitrification tanks from overflowing, the operations staff began partially bypassing the denitrification filters to minimize the tank levels spilling over the walls as much as possible. Waterbodies impacted include Cross Canal (North).
- In Lakeland, a manhole overflowed at the Glendale wastewater treatment plant. Approximately 27,000 gallons were spilled with no recovery and flowed directly into the Lake Hunter Ditch.
- Also in Lakeland, approximately 3,000 gallons were spilled with no recovery and flowed directly into Lake Parker.
- In Bradenton, the aeration basin at the Manatee County Southwest Water Reclamation Facility started to discharge raw wastewater onto the plant grounds. The discharged raw wastewater has remained on site. Due to flooding on the plant site, it is impossible to estimate how much of the partially treated wastewater left the site but the ultimate destination is Sarasota Bay. The initial estimated volume is greater than 1,000 gallons.
- In Seminole, 2,500 gallons estimated overflowed from the South Cross Bayou AWRF into storm drains and into Lake Seminole.
- In Madeira Beach, a sanitary sewer overflow at the South Cross Bayou AWRF caused and estimated 18,000 gallons to entered storm drains and into Boca Ciega Bay.
- In Clearwater, a sanitary sewer overflowed, causing an estimated 700 gallons to escape. About 500 gallons were recovered. Overflow entered storm drains and into Clearwater Harbor.
- In Clearwater, effluent overflowed from a manhole at the South Cross Bayou AWRF. An estimated 19,500 gallons of mixture of rain water and wastewater overflowed into storm drain that leads to Clearwater Harbor.
- In Pinellas Park, 30,000 gallons overflowed and 7,000 gallons were recovered. The flow went into storm drains to the Cross Bayou canal.
