Spill from broken sewage pipe cleaned up

SIESTA KEY - A break in a pipe caused 200,000 to 300,000 gallons of raw sewage to spill near White Sands Village on Midnight Pass Road on Saturday night.

Crews at the sewage treatment plant discovered the spill after they noticed a decrease in flow to the plant, said David Cash, general manager of utilities for Sarasota County.

County workers located the leak about 10 p.m.

Cash said the PVC pipe that cracked was 40 years old and had been sitting on top of another pipe. Vibration of the pipe against the one below it could have caused a weakness leading to the crack, Cash said.

By 8 a.m. Sunday, the pipe had been repaired and vacuum trucks had removed several loads of sewage and contaminated soil from the area.

None of the sewage made its way into local waterways, according to Cash and Dee Ann Miller, spokeswoman for the Department of Environmental Protection.

Cash said county health department workers were on hand to make sure the spill posed no health or environmental risks.

Such spills must be reported to state health officials and the DEP.

The county health department, a branch of state government, acts as the state DEP's representative to determine whether spills have an impact on waterways.

If the water had been contaminated, the health department would have required sampling, Cash said.

He said the spill was localized and that crews doused the area with lime to disinfect it.

Miller said the state will inspect today to ensure that there is no need for further cleanup.