Since the beginning of October, a single sewer pipe on Davis Islands has ruptured on two separate occasions, in the same spot, causing an estimated 28,000 gallons of untreated wastewater to spill into Seddon Channel.
The force main pipe, which is located near 85 Columbia Dr., originally broke on October 8, after a Verizon crew damaged it with a directional drill. The break was then fixed with a temporary bypass pumping system, but only after 24,000 gallons of wastewater found its way into Tampa Bay.
According to records filed with state regulators, that same bypass pumping system broke last Friday, Nov. 8, spilling another 18,000 gallons of wastewater. Most of it was cleaned up, however 4,000 gallons spilled into the nearby storm inlets that drain into the Marjorie Park Marina Basin.
City of Tampa spokesperson Ashley Bauman told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that the city hopes to repair the pipe in two weeks, with complete restoration taking another 2-3 weeks.
Bauman says the delay stems from the city having to relocate several existing utility pipes in order to gain access to the 48-inch wastewater main.
In terms of spills, the past few weeks have been particularly bad for the City of Tampa and Hillsborough County, which added a combined total of at least 555,110 gallons of spilled wastewater in October.
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This article appears in Nov 7-14, 2019.