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Board examines sewage spill cleanup
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET, Times Staff Writer LECANTO -- Call it a misunderstanding. That's how members of the Citrus County Water and Wastewater Authority described the conflicting accounts of a March 14 sewage spill in Sugarmill Woods that took Florida Water Services two days to clean up. After hearing nearly two hours of testimony Monday about the incident, the board decided not to proceed with charges that Florida Water Service misled regulatory agencies and demonstrated "inadequate management practices." "I think we beat this thing to death," board member Robert Troyer said. "I see no need for further action." A faulty valve allowed about 2,970 gallons of untreated sewage to spill March 14 from the Florida Water pump station onto Byrsonima Circle. Bob Bogosta, a Florida Water worker, said his crews immediately covered the spill with bacteria-killing lime, then washed the mess away with a fire hose. The state Department of Environmental Protection believed the cleanup was finished that day. But the following day, the agency received complaints from residents about the lingering smell of sewage in their neighborhood. That's when utility workers realized their March 14 cleanup had created another mess, said Dave Denny, Florida Water vice president of operations and maintenance. The sewage and lime that were washed away with fire hoses did not go into a sewer drain, but down a storm water drain and into a grassy drainage retention area behind the homes on Byrsonima Circle, he said. Crews covered the area with lime and shoveled up the 3,142-gallon mess in the drainage area. They pressure-washed the driveways and sprinkled a deodorizer in the drainage retention area, finishing the second cleanup by 5 p.m. March 15, said Dennis Muldoon, the treatment plant operator. Based on earlier discussions with workers, DEP and the county's Office of Utility Regulation had thought the cleanup efforts had been delayed to let the lime dry or get approval for crews to work overtime, but Florida Water officials disputed those accounts Monday. "I wouldn't leave raw sewage on the ground under any circumstances," Bogosta told the county's Water and Wastewater Authority board. "It's my career, it's my livelihood." David MacColeman, a DEP compliance enforcement specialist, said workers should have contained the original mess with sandbags and vacuumed it up, not spread the mess by hosing down the street. "I don't feel this is a cleanup that was correctly done," he said. But Denny said the original spill was too thinly spread to vacuum up. And members of the Water and Wastewater Authority said they were satisfied Florida Water made reasonable efforts to clean up the mess. -- Bridget Hall Grumet can be reached at 860-7303 or bhall@sptimes.com.
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