By CHAD SMITH
chad.smith@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 05/31/09
A sewage line running underneath the San Sebastian River broke Saturday near Oyster Creek, dumping gallons upon gallons of refuse into the water and prompting the City of St. Augustine to ask the public to not fish or swim in the river until it's deemed safe to do so.
John Regan, the city's chief operations officer, said Saturday night he had "no clue" what caused the break.
The state Department of Environmental Protection was alerted, Regan said, and city officials planned to meet with contractors to plan the repair process today.
Meantime, public works crews pumped sewage that would otherwise end up in the river into 3,000-gallon trucks from the lift station near Oyster Creek Marina.
From there they took it across the river to a lift station on Riberia Street, and from there it would flow south to the wastewater treatment facility.
Regan said some of the waste had been rerouted.
"The flow that we cannot reroute we are working to haul by truck," he said. "The key issue is to fix the pipe."
He didn't have an estimate of how many gallons had gotten into the river but said the city learned about the leak at about 4 p.m.
Once the pipe is fixed, the city will test the water. Until then, no one should be fishing or swimming in the river or eating fish or crabs caught in it.
"You want to protect yourself from bacteriological contamination," he said.
Some who live on boats at Oyster Creek Marina were upset that more wasn't being done as they watched the waste bubble up a few dozen feet north from where they are docked. Not to mention the smell.
One resident, labeling the contaminated water "brown tide," hypothesized that a derelict boat might have caused some damage to the pipe after it was towed out from the west bank of the river.
The man, who declined to be identified by name, said signs marking the sewage line near the bank were never there before the boat was hauled away.
Gregg Kaelin, a St. Augustine fisherman and a regular at the marina, chimed in, saying, "And there was never a smell before this morning."
Click here to return to story:
http://www.staugustine.com/stories/053109/news_053109_092.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
No comments:
Post a Comment