Saturday, November 2, 2024

Sewage spill in Escambia Bay leads to plans for $20 million infrastructure

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PENSACOLA, Fla. — After thousands of gallons of sewage flowed into Escambia Bay when a sewage main broke, the smelly situation could soon be resolved.

ECUA Executive Director Bruce Woody says crews were working through the weekend to repair the broken line. He says a multi-million dollar project to replace aging infrastructure is in the works.

People who live close enough to the sewage say this isn’t the first time they’ve experienced a spill like this.

George Sigler says he loves living along Skinner Mill Creek because of its beauty and access to Escambia Bay, but on Saturday evening, the sewage spill caused a bit of a smelly situation.

“If you go to the sewer facility in town, this is what the water will look like,” Sigler said.

He says this isn’t his first rodeo with sewage problems.

Sigler says this time last year, half-a-million gallons of sewage emptied into the creek and eventually into the bay.

“They don’t live here and they don’t smell this every day,” Sigler said. “They don’t have kids or animals that may come down here and jump in this water, so if it’s not in their backyard, that’s our problem.”

Woody says there was a spill volume estimate of about 10,000 gallons. Five thousand gallons were recovered onsite and crews worked through the weekend to clean it up.

“I suspect there’s probably 80,000 to 100,000 gallons that came down this creek and unfortunately a lot of it is just sitting here,” Sigler said.

ECUA conducted testing at 8 a.m. at three different locations.

One immediately upstream of where the sewage went into Skinner Mill Creek, one at Skinner Mill Creek, and another location downstream in the bay.

He says the area north of the point of entry is now clear but at the entry itself, the testing came back with high numbers of enterococcus — which can cause urinary tract infections, meningitis, and other infections.

Woody advises the community to avoid getting in the water until further notice.

“It may be a few days or a little longer depending on what those numbers are,” Woody said.

Woody says aging infrastructures are the reason this has happened again.

“The area we’re talking about here right along Scenic Highway is a force main made out of cast iron built in the 1960s,” Woody said. “It is reaching the latter ends of its use for life. We have an infrastructure project planned to replace that.”

He says the line would be completely replaced and run through different directions to not only get it out of the backyard of several neighborhoods but also to save the ECUA ratepayer money because of energy savings.

The infrastructure project is a pricy one, as Woody says it’s estimated to cost up to $20 million.

“We’re already in the preliminary stages of the engineering for that and then construction will probably take two years,” Woody said.

But Sigler isn’t satisfied.

“The leadership of Escambia County is, in my opinion, so poor that they should’ve realized this when they had the other sewer break about two years ago,” Sigler said. “They need to fix the sewer infrastructure but they don’t care until something like this happens. They’re reactive, not proactive.”

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