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As raw sewage leaked, utility fumbled

A state investigation finds the Pasco agency mishandled a 21-million gallon leak, the latest in a series of environmental lapses.

By GARRETT THEROLF
Published November 27, 2005

Hundreds of people woke to find bugs swarming around their homes. Fish were dying by the dozens at the nearby pond. Buzzards circled.

For 43 days this summer, no one was able to pinpoint the source of the mysterious problems outside the meticulously maintained homes near Lake Bernadette in Zephyrhills.

The odor intensified in the summer heat. The pond where people had fished festered and algae bloomed thick and green, then thick and red.

Residents complained loudly to the county health department, but the problem was outside its jurisdiction. The sewage, it turned out, was coming from the county utility lines, which had sprung a leak. Utility officials knew there was a leak somewhere, but they did not get the word that Lake Bernadette residents had complained.

And so weeks went by with more and more sewage flowing into the pond.

Finally, residents called the state Department of Environmental Protection. An inspector quickly found the problem.

A large crack in a county pipe in the neighborhood had released 21.2-million gallons of raw sewage - twice the amount of oil spilled during the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska in 1989.

The DEP was especially concerned because it had already warned Pasco County Utilities about a series of other environmental lapses over three years. The pollution at the pond at Lake Bernadette was so grave that it led the state to place the utility under its tightest oversight and consider fining the county tens of thousands of dollars.

Documents produced in the state investigation of the spill, as well as interviews with those involved, portray a utility department that couldn't solve a serious problem in plain sight.

* * *

When Dale Trinko arrived for work at the Southeast Wastewater Treatment Plant on June 6, it was clear he faced a problem.

As plant operator, Trinko monitors the flow of sewage coming into the plant near Zephyrhills. He noticed the plant was receiving 500,000 fewer gallons of sewage for the day compared to the previous week.

He immediately alerted his boss, who took the news up the chain of command to Harold Bungard, the third-highest ranking official in the department.

There were three possible explanations why almost half of the plant's daily sewage load was missing. The sewage might have been diverted to another plant, a lift station powering the flow through the utility's web of pipes was down, or there was a leak.

But no diversion had been made, a check revealed, and all lift stations were working.

The logical thing to do would have been to search for the only remaining possibility, but that didn't immediately happen.

As Pasco Utilities Operations and Maintenance Director Warren Wagner wrote to DEP last month, "Since standard operating procedures, at that time, did not require the operations and maintenance sections of the Pasco County Utilities Services Branch to coordinate activities, Mr. Bungard assumed that the problem was being address by the maintenance section."

In other words, the employees operating the plant were not responsible for any problems beyond the boundary of the plant itself, and those responsible for the pipes just beyond the border weren't notified.

A few days later, when the maintenance staff was first told of the missing sewage, two staffers conducted a partial review over two days of some of the plant's major arteries. There is no record in the state's file that anyone examined the 6-inch pipe that was cracked.

For the next five Mondays, Trinko continued to record that about 500,000 gallons of sewage was missing every day.

Still, nobody searched for the cracked pipe.

"The low flow was no longer a priority," Wagner said in his letter.

* * *

Meanwhile, residents were steamed.

Since the beginning of June, they had watched fish float to the top of their pond by the bucketload. They counted 338 as they picked them up one by one, including 170 large mouth bass, the majority weighing more than 10 pounds.

"The pond looked like the top of a septic tank," said resident Lillie Fondell.

Julie Knox, secretary for the American Condominium Parks Homeowners Association, said she made repeated calls to the county health department by the end of June, including information about exactly where they saw sewage gushing several feet high from a pipe beside a major road and the pond.

"They said, "It's not our problem,"' Knox said.

Finally, residents called the DEP.

On July 19, inspector Jerry Nichols arrived. DEP subsequently ordered the pond to be aerated to foster bacteria that help break down solid waste, and for some of the sewage to be trucked away for treatment.

But the lack of communication within county corridors continued.

Commissioner Pat Mulieri, who represents the area, said she doesn't recall ever being alerted to the problem by county staffers. Instead, she heard the news of the spill when a DEP letter arrived on her desk to warn her near the end of summer that a consent order and fines were coming.

No press release was issued, and the spill was never the topic of a commission meeting.

"It probably should have been," Mulieri said Friday.

Knox said the homeowners association requested that a county official visit their weekly coffee hour to provide any information about the potential health consequences, which can include respiratory and intestinal problems, and the plan for the pond's cleanup. Nobody responded, she said.

At the end of July, Utility Director Bruce Kennedy, one of the highest ranking officials in county government, provided information to The Tampa Tribune for a brief item. He said several million gallons of sewage had been spilled, causing a minor fish kill that was not reported until the end of July, and "there are no houses right there," the newspaper reported.

* * *

Attorneys in the DEP's Tallahassee office are completing the terms of a consent order that the county will be forced to operate under. The order could include mandates for additional staff, additional maintenance inspections and other measures. The state is also likely to fine Pasco for its violations.

DEP investigator Jerry Nichols said the action will account not only for the Lake Bernadette spill, but for a series of warning letters issued over the last three years that cited the county for spilling millions of gallons of treated wastewater that was supposed to be used for landscape irrigation.

County Administrator John Gallagher acknowledged that his staff dropped the ball during the Lake Bernadette spill and said he expects the consent order "to be a kick in the pants."

Since notice arrived that the DEP considered the spill and others to be a paramount concern, he has accelerated plans for a staff reorganization in the department.

Bungard, who was deeply involved in the handling of the Lake Bernadette spill, has been moved to a job with less responsibility, although the county said it was purely the result of "personal reasons."

But Gallagher said he also wished that the county had defended itself more forcefully during recent negotiations with DEP officials over the incoming consent order.

For one thing, the county had achieved a positive record over the years with the DEP, while consent orders and fines were routine when he took control of the county in the early 1980s.

The DEP has also not been able to explain, Gallagher said, why it is a serious issue if treated wastewater is spilled from storage ponds on adjacent fields on streams when the same water can safely be applied to grass at children's playgrounds.

For her part, Mulieri promised a "review of the utilities department" as a result, with a specific eye to the possibility that the department is understaffed. She pledged to work with the homeowners association, which wants the county to monitor and improve the water quality and replenish the fish supply.

It will take some effort to regain the trust of Lake Bernadette residents.

John Fonk, president of the American Condominium Park Homeowners Association, called the episode a "disgrace."

"It's just amazing how relaxed they were. I've never seen anything like this."

--Garrett Therolf covers Pasco County government. He can be reached at 727 869-6232 or at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6232. His e-mail address is gtherolf@sptimes.com

[Last modified November 27, 2005, 01:18:21]