Line breaks and pump station overflows witnessed inside Islamorada’s wastewater assortment system the final 4 years led state officers to order a number of corrective measures and impose fines.
An Oct. 15 letter and report from the Florida Division of Environmental Safety to Village Supervisor Ron Saunders states the village’s wastewater assortment system skilled six sanitary sewer overflows and discharges from Could 2021 to as latest as final March. The incidents have been in violation of state rules which prohibit sewage, wastewater or biosolids from being disposed of with out remedy.
As well as, DEP stated the wastewater system failed to arrange, preserve or replace the required operation and upkeep guide, together with an emergency response plan. Collectively, the violations led to $11,320 in fines and varied corrective actions the village should undertake to mitigate additional breaks and spills.
Simply after village officers acquired the order on Oct. 15, a becoming broke on a wastewater valve on the Previous Freeway. It led 3,000 gallons of untreated wastewater to leak underground. The incident at 90391 Previous Freeway was instantly reported to DEP, stated Saunders.
Accomplished in 2016, the village’s wastewater system consists of a number of vacuum pump stations from Decrease Matecumbe to higher Plantation Key. Some areas are served with a low-pressure power fundamental assortment system.
As soon as collected, all effluent is transported through power fundamental to the Key Largo Wastewater Remedy District’s (KLWTD) plant at MM 100.3 for remedy and disposal. Islamorada is KLWTD’s largest buyer with tens of tens of millions of gallons of wastewater pumped to the plant each month.
Reynolds Water Islamorada, now Reynolds Development, as soon as operated the gathering and transmission system for the village by a contractor settlement. In March 2018, the village moved wastewater operations and upkeep providers in-house. The village stated the choice to transition operations was not as a result of efficiency of the service supplier. Moderately, the transfer was made in an effort to realize future cost-savings for Islamorada residents.
On Could 3, 2021, the village’s pump station on Gardenia Avenue skilled an overflow of 10,000 gallons of untreated wastewater. An analogous incident on the pump station occurred July 23, 2022, as 400,000 gallons of untreated wastewater overflowed.
And final March, an overflow of 10,000 gallons of untreated wastewater occurred on the Gardenia Avenue pump station. Village officers stated the pump station was present process cleansing as required to correctly preserve the system and the tools. Through the course of, a pump consumption line turned clogged which restricted the movement.
Village stated workers promptly responded and restored the pump to full operation. The overflow was instantly stopped and all effluent remained onsite and was cleaned up as required, the village stated. The cleanup lasted about two weeks.
In accordance with the village, the clog within the line was brought on by extreme “rags,” or non-flushable objects.
Per DEP’s order, the village acquired a allow on Dec. 12, 2023 to exchange the prevailing North Plantation Key pump station on Gardenia Avenue with an in-line booster pump station. The village says this mission would resolve the problems seen on the present facility.
Per DEP, the allow didn’t present a set completion schedule. DEP’s order states the brand new in-line booster pump station have to be totally constructed and full no later than Dec. 31, 2027. Inside 60 days of the Oct. 15 order, the village should present DEP with an in depth plan to finish and fee the in-line booster pump station.
Along with the overflows, the village’s wastewater system skilled three separate line breaks at MM 92.3 and close to Burton Drive in Tavernier between June 2023 and September 2024. Collectively, the breaks resulted in 10,000 gallons of sewage to spill out. A smelly state of affairs noticed crews working across the clock to repair the breaks. The ruptures and subsequent restore work introduced visitors congestion to the realm for hours.
Wastewater line breaks close to MM 92 have been brought on by “hammering,” which happens when there’s a sudden change in stress.
Previous discussions between the village and KLWTD over enhancements to handle the problems at North Plantation Key pump station and line breaks haven’t yielded settlement among the many entities’ engineers. KLWTD’s engineers in Weiler Engineering Company (WEC), in a Sept. 16 letter, say the village could make quick wastewater enhancements to forestall recurring points, together with repairing and coating the prevailing equalization tank, or a storage tank in wastewater remedy to buffer and stabilize the inconsistent movement of incoming wastewater, and decreasing the transient stress waves throughout pump shut-down. In the long run, WEC stated, the village ought to construct a brand new, property designed equalization tank.
WEC’s letter included the pump station’s present poor situation as outlined by the village’s engineering advisor CHA. Not solely are sewage pumps plugging as a consequence of rags, however the present equalization tank, which is a repurposed concrete wastewater remedy plant, is in poor structural situation and can seemingly fail sooner or later.
WEC additionally recommends changing the 18-inch PVC within the power fundamental from the North Plantation Key pump station to the Key Largo wastewater remedy plant in areas the place breaks have occurred.
As for Islamorada engineers in Wade Trim, they consider an in-line booster pump station displays a stability of technical, operational and group issues. In an Oct. 5 letter responding to Weiler Engineering Company’s suggestion, Wade Trim says the booster station eliminates odor impacts, improves operational reliability and reduces long-term capital and operation and administration prices whereas persevering with to satisfy the village’s obligations underneath the consent decree and interlocal settlement.
A letter from Peter Rosasco, KLWTD basic supervisor, to the village on Sept. 24 states the KLWTD doesn’t consider its considerations have been “satisfactorily addressed” to provide the district cheap assurance that the in-line booster pump system won’t hurt operations.
“The district has important considerations that the proposed in-line booster pump system will create new issues for each Islamorada and KLWTD, whereas failing to resolve the prevailing points,” he wrote.
A number of conferences have been held amongst Saunders, Rosasco and engineering companies to enhance communication and coordination in hopes to succeed in settlement on wanted enhancements for the village’s wastewater system. An settlement is very essential now {that a} deadline for accomplished enhancements is acknowledged in DEP’s order to the village.