Power outage leads to 60,750-gallon raw sewage spill in San Sebastian River
Posted: March 14, 2015 - 3:07pm
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By THE RECORD
City of St. Augustine crews responded to a power outage at a sanitary sewer lift station Saturday morning.
The outage led to an estimated 60,750-gallon spill of raw sewage into the San Sebastian River.
Public Works Director Martha Graham said not all of the city’s more than 70 pump stations have stand-by generation, but some do.
“This was not one of them,” she added.
The station is off Masters Drive at the eastern terminus of Helen Street. Temporary power was restored by city crews and repaired later by Florida Power & Light.
It was determined the outage was triggered by a raccoon shorting out the station’s power at about 10 p.m. on Friday.
Upon the city crews’ arrival, a survey was conducted to determine where a spill may have occurred.
That survey identified a manhole, located at Josiah Street and Florida Avenue, which was overflowing into the San Sebastian River.
It was also determined that the sewage was not recoverable.
Graham said the problem creating the spill has been corrected and crews will continue to sample the waterway.
Following protocol, the city has reported the spill to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
“We’re waiting to see what they say,” she said, adding the DEP may or may not do an inspection depending on its criteria.
“(City crews) will monitor until samples are at a level well enough that we can stop sampling,” she said.
Signs notifying the public of the spill have been posted at the San Sebastian River bridges at State Road 16, U.S. 1 and King Street.
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wombat
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wombat 03/15/15 - 08:05 am 51MONEY FOR BACKUP GENERATORS OR 450TH BOONDOGGLE?
Ah yes, the crabbing and fishing will be oh so fine with the additional chum now in the San Sebastian River. Just don't eat what you catch or you just might contract a nasty disease that a faith healer cannot cure. But, you will be able to enjoy all the expensive fluff and artsy interpretations of the 450th presented by the city bigwigs. Was human poop being dumped into the San Sebastian 450 years ago?
JoeJoe
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JoeJoe 03/15/15 - 11:17 am 21Just another example
of the mismanagement that has been going on at the city for some time. Kudos to Mayor Shaver for suggesting the contracts be reviewed that were signed for the 450th. She sure ruffled some of the turkeys feathers. They were more than happy to waste money for "consultants".
captdave
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captdave 03/15/15 - 11:44 am 31This is criminal! No backup
This is criminal! No backup generators on a lift station that close too a major waterway. Heads should roll.
Jason Hamilton
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Jason Hamilton 03/15/15 - 02:04 pm 10Are you kidding me!?
Inexcusable. This is a have to have and not a would be nice to have situation. Who has been asleep at the wheel? Mayor Boles had plenty of funds available when he first came into office. Keeping doo-doo confined is a must! Especially when our treatment facilities are water adjacent. Every car has an E-brake why do we not have P-breaks on all facilities? I know the county/sate are always super vigilant and hyper critical when my business is inspected. I have seen them scrutinize my backflow valve preventer on my exterior garden hose for crying out loud. I have no problem following the rules but I cant stand do as I say and not as I do mentalities. Someone needs to catch it hot for this PooNami unleashed on us. And run a check up on the S.J. river properties to make sure that all septic tanks are contained and have the owners fix leaking ones. We should start dropping raccoons on the middle east. Public support for jihadi zealots will fade quickly after the locals wade threw a few crapalanches.
DavidWiles 03/15/15 - 03:07 pm 01Dear matanzas Riverkeeper....
Re; Matanzas Riverkeeper
Everyone thinks it is quaint when the City of St. Augustine Utility notes its 'red water' problem. It is just a stain and completely safe for the citizens as utility customers we are promised.
hen we remember this is the same utility that ran a pipe along side US1 north in hopes of hooking up Nocatee or some other mega development but the deal fell through. Only problem with water conservation is that the pipe was never capped and water ran for years.
Then we remember this is the utility that, for whatever historical reason, never got basic water and sewer hookup for West Augustine citizens.
Now we find there is no automatic generator backup whenever the power fails so raw sewerage goes to the San Sebastian river (a tributary flowing directly into the Matanzas River.
~~~
I would suggest this for the Matanzas Riverkeeper. A week or so ago the Public Works Director put our an Infrastructure report card with the overall score being a C grade. To protect the water resources of the Matanzas River and its tributary I would only 'trust but verify' any public utility contact. I would watch the new marina development closely but the true problems of management and operation seems to be the present and historic situation going on right now. Demand back up generators and end this kind of polluting from City, County and JEA utilities. It is an F grade situation.
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