Prone to sewage spills
The following is an editorial published in the Sarasota Herald Tribune April 25th. I very much agree and have said the same thing in the past. Sarasota can afford and should demand state of the art utilities.
Prone to sewage spills
DEP order shows urgent need to improve Sarasota system
Heavy rain. Grease blockages. Pipe breaks. Electrical outages. Pump failures.
These problems caused a majority of the 41 sewage spills that the city of Sarasota reported between September 2004 and May 2005.
This information, contained in a consent order set by the state Department of Environmental Protection (and accepted by city commissioners last week), reveals surprising vulnerability in the sewer system -- infrastructure of the most fundamental kind.
Under the order, the city will pay a $14,000 fine and make specified improvements to its waste-water treatment plant and "collection system" over the next five years. Fortunately, city officials appear to be expediting those measures; we urge them to assign high priorities to these necessary expenditures come budget time.
Of the spills, the majority involved less than 200 gallons of sewage each. But two accidents -- caused by electrical and pump failures -- spewed a combined 1 million gallons of waste into Hudson Bayou.
Driven in part by those episodes, area residents and the environmental group ManaSota-88 demanded that the city live up to its clean-water obligations. Kudos to the citizens for focusing much-needed attention on an issue of concern here and statewide. High-quality recreational waters are crucial to Florida's tourism-based economy and way of life.
Communities like Sarasota -- which is by no means the worst offender -- must invest in and push continually for better waste-water systems. Deluges, power outages and grease problems pose technical challenges, to be sure. But as the consent order makes very clear, they aren't at all uncommon.
