Sewage spill in Navy Point

As some of you may have read in the PNJ there was a massive Sewage spill in the Navy Point Bayou(Bayou Grande). It was NOT reported in a proper manner and has put people at risk. I am just getting involved in it. I may ask some of you, if you choose to, to help bring some pressure on the people responsible. Maybe emails, to the PNJ, Ricks Blog, and related agencies. As I have said, I am just getting started. Let me get some more info before I jump off the cliff. Thanks I dont want to hamper what others may also be doing. Stay tuned.

More than a day after a shattered Emerald Coast Utilities Authority sewer pipe spewed 35,000 gallons of wastewater into Bayou Grande in western Escambia County, children still frolicked in the water.

The breakage near Bayou Grande Marina at the northeast corner of Pensacola Naval Air Station occurred at 8 a.m. Wednesday. By late in the day Thursday, ECUA had provided no notification of the spill, and its executive director said it was not responsible for doing so.

ECUA chief Steve Sorrell said that responsibility fell to the Health Department, which issued a release at 2 p.m. Thursday.

Health Department Director Dr. John Lanza said that release was issued as soon as test results came back from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

An Escambia County news release at 4 p.m. Thursday said that a second spill occurred during repairs at the lift station due to pump trucks being unable to keep up with water flow.

“They’ve deemed certain levels of bacteria in the water that are unacceptable for humans,” Health Department spokeswoman Erica Holland said. “Our main concern is any kind of disease that could result from bacteria ... so we issued (the health alert) to prevent that kind of illness.”

Lanza said people near the marina are at minimal risk of contamination, but no one should swim, boat or otherwise have significant contact with water in the area until the alert is lifted.

ECUA board member Lois Benson, alerted to the spill by a News Journal reporter Thursday afternoon, said she is concerned that the public was not informed of the spill on the day it happened.

“We’re in the business of public safety in many ways,” she said. “We have an obligation to inform the public. When this happened a couple years ago, it was my understanding we would always have prompt alerts. This is unacceptable.”

Last summer, the ECUA was working on its notification process for alerting residents after water line breakages that led to boil-water notices.

At the time, ECUA spokesman Jim Roberts said the ECUA was just a few weeks away from launching an alert system for users of social media. ECUA launched a Facebook page in April 2012, but nothing has been posted on the site.

Thursday, Roberts said the ECUA had fulfilled its obligation by notifying the Department of Environmental Protection, the Florida Division of Emergency Management and the Health Department.

“We went through all of our proper channels,” he said. “It was reported immediately after we discovered the spill.”

ECUA Chairman Larry Walker, who has been on the board for more than 20 years, said it is not as crucial to give an immediate warning about a sewage spill in the bayou as there is about a line break that affects drinking water.

“A spill like that sounds terrible, but there’s not a lot of purpose in warning people,” Walker said. “A sewage spill does not immediately threaten people. But whether it’s done or not is determined by protocols of the Health Department.”

From a friend of mine that posted in comments of the PNJ.
Charles M. Green IV · Pensacola, Florida
I received an email from the UWF water quality folks Thursday around 3PM. They had provided some info to us about water quality in our May Warrington Revitalization Meeting. They knew that I run a electronic mailing list so that is why they sent it to me. I wanted to confirm before I emailed it out to all our folks. Sending an email to say stay out of the water would ruin many weekends if it was not correct... So I called ECUA... They said there was no break! I called the News Desk at Channel 3, they knew nothing about it. I called the PNJ news desk, same answer. I called the Health department, was told there was no break. I hung up, called back, talked to someone else, who again TOLD ME there was no break and nothing to worry about! I called the base security forces folks, who said there were ECUA trucks out by the traffic light Wednesday morning at 6AM working on something, but they did not know of any break. They transferred me to someone else at the base who also confirmed no spill. Then I called back to ECUA, I asked them to investigate further and dropped Steve Sorrells name. They put me on hold for about 15 minutes, while trying to find out info. They did do a very good job of picking me back up every few minutes telling me they were working on it. The girls at the call center were VERY nice and just as surprised as I was to hear there was actually a break. Note to ECUA, your phone system is broken, after 15 minutes on hold, even though they were picking me up ever few minutes, your auto attendant comes on and goes through a default option list. It did this to me twice, both times I just had to hang up and call back in. After about 30 minutes they informed me that they would have Jim Roberts call me back when he got out of a meeting. HE called back about 20 minutes later and informed me that there was a break on the base a 49 Taylor Road, and 72,000 gallons was lost. The break was found at 8AM on Wednesday morning. He informed me they notified the Health Department at 4PM. It is unclear if it was 4PM on Wed or 4PM on Thursday. Either way, not acceptable in my book. Jim was very nice and very informative. In ECUAs eyes they did what they were supposed to do. Tell the Health Department.... ECUA should have posted notices, they should not expect the Health Department to act fast. I like the answer Lois Benson provided. Larry Walkers response is disturbing. Remind me to drop off 72,000 gallons of poop in his back yard next week. It might have just been a sound bite, but he should have known better than to give the PNJ that kind of ammo.

Yes I thought about calling Lois directly, but that is why they have a hotline for questions...

My question, is how did UWF know the levels were "off the chart" meanwhile the Health department had no clue.

The email:
From: Barbara Albrecht [mailto:balbrecht@uwf.edu]
Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2013 3:33 PM
To: PrinceXilla .; Charlie Lurton; jablackw@southernco.com; Matt MacGregor; O'Connor,Lawrence Richard; jbrown1489; Gagliano, Paul; Donald Ray
Cc: Richard Olsen; Wernicke, R. Mike; Leah and Mike; Jay Massey; Kimee Bremner; Christy Draper; Jane Caffrey; J J BACHANT; Rod Mitchell; Jessica Koelsch; Jessica Forbes; Christian Wagley; Carole Tebay; Hoku
Subject: Sewage Spill in Bayou Grande
Folks,
I just received word that Bayou Grande experienced a 100,000 gallon sewage spill yesterday (Wed, 5 June) and the fecal coliform levels are off the charts.
Many of you live on the bayou or recreate there. Please be careful and warn your neighbors about getting in the water. Individuals with open sores or who have compromised immune systems should be especially cautious.
The Dept of Health will provide some level of notification, but in the interim please proceed with caution.
Thanks for your help,
Barbara
--
Barbara Albrecht
Watershed Coordinator, University of West Florida
Center for Environmental Diagnostics & Bioremediation

ECUA is not in the business of public health. They pump and treat sewage and pump and supply drinking water and pick up garbage.

It is the Health Department's job to evaluate health hazards and notify the public of hazards, not the ECUA, not the DEP. (I supervised Water & Sewage at the Health Department AND later, supervised enforcement for DEP's regulation of Domestic Waste programs (sewage).)

The ECUA is required to report their discharges to regulatory agencies... Promptly. Anything less than prompt reporting is simply wrong.

With miles of shoreline on Bayou Grande, it is impractical to try to personally notify every swimmer. Posting of signs is rare but not unheard of. The Health Department relies on the media (TV, radio, etc) to get the word out with the greatest amount of exposure and the TV stations in particular are eager to report such local stories.

Unfortunately, spills are more common than you would think. They just happen. Also, the North Arm of Bayou Grande has lots of septic tanks around it, people don't pick up dog poop from their yards and after almost EVERY incident of heavy rains, the bacterial count in Bayou Grande goes off the charts or, at least, the Health Department is quoted on TV as closing the bayou to swimming until further notice.

Prompt reporting is a must. The public must be notified. It is a never ending saga.

And never, ever swim in Bayou Grande after heavy rain. It is really that bad, folks. The same thing goes for Bayou Texar, too.

I revived this thread to post this as support for what I mentioned earlier... that our bayous are not clean.  I supervised the Health Department's Water & Sewage section, which included public bathing place sampling and inspection of public swimming pools.

About the only places I would say are usually safe are Big Lagoon State Park and the beaches on the Gulf of Mexico.

---

TODAY'S PNJ:

The Florida Department of Health in Escambia County has issued a health alert for three areas, effective immediately.

The alert is in effect for Bayou Chico at Lakewood Park, Bayou Grande north of Sunset Avenue Bridge in Navy Point, and Bayou Texar at Bayview Park.

Department officials advise against any water-related activities at those locations because of the potential for high bacteria levels.
Bacteriological sampling was done during biweekly water quality monitoring activities and the level of bacteria has exceeded the level established by state guidelines.

The department will continue to monitor the water quality in the area and will let the public know the results.

The marina by the back gate was crowded Saturday..  At least 20 cars and boat trailers were parked along the road..

Jake, Sherman Cove (at NAS Pensacola) is right next to the pass.  There is plenty of fairly clean water near the pass... especially on an incoming tide.  That marina is right next to Fort McRee too.  I love that area for boating and swimming.  Here's a "water" pic from a Memorial Day weekend in 2005.