When three named storms slammed into the Suncoast this past hurricane season, they did more than just flood neighborhoods and topple power lines – they also forced millions of gallons of sewage into local waterways. 

Heavy rains and storm surges unleashed by Hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton seeped into the region’s aging sewer lines through cracks and breaks, overwhelming systems never built for such deluges and causing them to spill their contents into nearby rivers, bays, and bayous.

From the Manatee River to Sarasota Bay, 177.8 million gallons of wastewater were released last hurricane season – enough to fill nearly 270 Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to a Suncoast Searchlight analysis of data from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. 

That’s more sewage pollution from three storms than any other time over at least the past half decade across Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties, the data showed.

The aftermath was both immediate and enduring. Dead fish washed up along the shoreline, beach advisories went into effect, and tour boats remained docked as communities felt the weight of the crisis. 

This stark reality revealed the vulnerability of the region’s aging sewer systems, long neglected and ill-equipped to handle such extreme weather events. 

While some local governments have begun addressing decades of neglect, the sheer volume of sewage spilled last season demonstrates that piecemeal fixes have fallen short and underscores the critical need for comprehensive, systemic reforms to protect our environment and public health against future storms.

“We know about the aging sewage infrastructure across the country and how it’s creating problems,” said Katie Bauman, Florida policy manager for the Surfrider Foundation, an environmental nonprofit that works to preserve oceans. “Here, it’s compounded by climate issues like rising sea-level and increased flooding.

“So much of what we hear is out of sight, out of mind, and that’s the line time and again until there’s a catastrophe.”

From Palmetto down to Englewood, officials project it will cost billions of dollars to bring the aging sewage infrastructure across the Suncoast up to modern standards. 

The aging pipes outlived their intended lifespan decades ago. But it wasn’t until environmental advocates started suing municipalities in 2016 that they began to prioritize fixing cracks in the pipes, loose line connections and plant deficiencies.

The millions of dollars spent on stopgaps and retrofits since have failed to keep pace with the region’s booming populations and intensified rainfalls. 

In the past three decades alone, the combined population of Sarasota and Manatee counties has about doubled to nearly 1 million people – all flushing toilets and adding strain to sewer systems never designed to handle those kinds of loads. 

The growth comes as the warming Earth has supercharged storms, with even regular rainfalls dumping more water.

“All of these things are the result of a changing climate,” said Bob Bunting, chief executive of the Climate Adaptation Center in Sarasota. “Then you add population growth, and you have a recipe for disaster.”

To be sure, sewer systems malfunction for reasons other than storms. But of the 830 spills across the Suncoast during the past five years, just 38 were labeled as accidents and another 103 were contractor mistakes, Suncoast Searchlight found. Nothing produced anything even close to the havoc of issues associated with rainfall.

Local government officials interviewed by Suncoast Searchlight blamed the sewage breaks on sins of their predecessors, pointing to more recent efforts to address sewer infrastructure and improve water quality throughout the region.

“We are in this like everyone else,” said Mohammed Rayan, public works director for the city of Palmetto. “The old terracotta (clay) pipes are not sealed, so we’re going through to line them and replace them, but of course, funding is a challenge. The storms we had last year were unprecedented. I don’t think any system in the world would sustain it.”

Suncoast governments scramble to contain sewage pollution

Through the three major storms last year, Bradenton’s system released far more sewage than any other local government. 

The city’s system was built to handle 9 million gallons of sewage a day. During Hurricane Debby, it was drowning in more than three times that amount.

City officials scrambled to create more capacity, but the plant on 1st Street West still couldn’t keep up. Twenty-five million gallons of wastewater surged into the Manatee River.

Days later, another 1.6 million gallons of raw sewage spilled into the river and nearby Ware’s Creek. 

Seven weeks after that came Hurricane Helene and its record levels of storm surge that flooded the barrier islands and shorelines of Sarasota and Manatee counties. Stormwater from the disaster inundated the lift stations on Longboat Key, damaging their electrical panels and sending tens of thousands of gallons of untreated waste into the gulf. 

By the time Hurricane Milton hit in October, sewage spilled out of manholes in Palmetto, a Mosaic Co. fertilizer mine released industrial waste into the small community of Lithia, and an effluent holding tank in Sarasota overflowed into a creek. 

“You have these intense rainfalls that are getting worse,” said Justin Bloom, founder of Suncoast Waterkeeper. “Our wastewater infrastructure is not designed to address this new reality. Every time there’s a hurricane, there’s major overflows. The question is whether that’s just the cost of doing business?”

Despite repeated sewage failures, environmental advocates say elected officials did not prioritize major retrofits until ordered by a judge. 

Sarasota County settled a lawsuit over sewage pollution by the Suncoast Waterkeeper, Our Children’s Earth Foundation and the Ecological Rights Foundation in 2019, and the city of Bradenton settled a similar lawsuit with the three groups and ManaSota-88 Inc. in 2022.

In Sarasota County, the court order included a corrective action plan for improvements to the wastewater collection system. 

Since then, the county has invested $280 million on upgrades to its Bee Ridge facility, with a new advanced wastewater plant to expand capacity opening by December and a state testing permit to inject the treated water underground through a new well on-site.

From 2013 to 2019, the Suncoast saw three different wastewater discharges of more than 200 million gallons and five more incidents of 100 million gallons or more. Much of that spilled from a treated storage pond at the Bee Ridge facility.

But this past hurricane season, even though the facility was running a peak flow of more than 20 million gallons a day during Debby, the improvements worked and there were no forced releases from Bee Ridge.

Funded in part through customer utility bills, the improvements will add capacity for another two decades, said Brooke Bailey, the county’s director of public utilities.

“This is the biggest capital project for Sarasota County,” she said.

Bradenton, too, was given a timetable for work required under its 598-page settlement. The city borrowed $50 million to expand plant capacity, with another $120 million allocated to rebuilding or relocating 64 city lift stations.

But Bradenton has struggled to meet benchmarks due to delays in state permitting and contracts, poor administration, and staff turnover, Bloom said.

Just in January, the city’s overloaded system continued to malfunction, sending sewage overflowing onto facility grounds and into drainage ditches, where 450,000 gallons of partially-treated waste spilled into the river. 

“Bradenton failed really badly,” Bloom said. “They are so far behind when it comes to deferred maintenance on a system that’s been in decay for many years. Now, they’re trying to play catch-up, but they were really behind the ball during the rainy season.”

Bradenton’s system is 270 linear miles of pipe connecting a series of 4,200 manholes. Crews use submersible cameras to inspect pipes and insert a protective lining without digging up roads at a clip of $2 million per seven miles, according to city documents. 

So far, about half of the city’s outdated 62-mile clay, cast iron and metal pipes — which date back to the 1930s — have been fixed. More than 1,000 faulty manholes were identified for repair. 

“You’re going to have breakdowns because it’s so old,” Bradenton Mayor Gene Brown said. “Until something breaks, oftentimes, in government, they don’t fix it.”

Brown said he’s prioritized sewage infrastructure since his election in 2020. He defended the heath of the Manatee River, calling the sewage an “eyedrop in a bathtub,” and said he personally asked then-President Joe Biden last year for help securing the $22 million needed to finish lining city pipes. 

“We’re facing it and fixing it,” Brown said. “We’re trying to make a difference. I don’t know why (it wasn’t done in the past), but this is not something you can just tax your way out of.”

Hurricanes and sewers – a storm of destruction

Sewers are a collection of pipes buried beneath the ground that carry human waste from homes, schools and businesses to treatment facilities. 

The system here is a puzzle of more than 100 former utilities cobbled together by local governments from private developers. When builders put in new subdivisions without sewage infrastructure, they’ll build their own, but often neglect proper maintenance for years. 

Any number of things can cause these systems to falter or fail. 

Some are caused by humans: Fat, oil and cooking grease dumped down drains build up in the lines and hardens over time, narrowing the path and impeding the flow of water and waste to the treatment plants; baby wipes, sanitary napkins and other items never meant to be flushed cause similar logjams.

Some are caused by nature: The roots of growing trees infiltrate the underground pipes, creating cracks and gaps that allow rainwater and sediment to seep in. It’s exacerbated with older clay or cast iron pipes – the standard before PVC plastic – more susceptible to cracking and corrosion.

Others owe to natural wear and tear as old materials break down and the ground shifts and resettles. Across the Suncoast, hundreds of miles of clay pipes are now nearing a century old and well beyond the intended 50- to 60-year lifespan.

When massive amounts of stormwater seep into the lines – or power outages shut down lift stations during a hurricane – the aging systems overload. If people keep flushing during the storms, waste never makes it to the plant, often overflowing through manholes.

Even during Florida’s typical afternoon thunderstorms, sewers often cannot take the pounding. 

Since the start of 2020, heavy rainfall caused at least 232 sewage incidents across Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto – nearly four spills per month. Each year, 70 times more wastewater gets dumped across the Suncoast during the Atlantic hurricane season compared to the rest of the year.

“There’s no question when it’s raining a lot, that’s typically when we have our water quality issues,” said Justin Tramble, executive director of the Tampa Bay Waterkeeper. The Manatee River is part of the Tampa Bay estuary. “There’s a direct correlation with that and the breakdowns at these wastewater facilities.”

Cindy Post has lived in Bradenton’s historic Ware’s Creek neighborhood for eight years, in a middle-class home just across the street from the water. During that time, she said she’s noticed a decline in the creek’s quality, especially after hurricanes or when the tide is low and sediment builds. Now, she said, she’s greeted with a constant stench of sewage while doing yardwork or watching her young children play outside.

“Every time we go down (by the creek), the smell is horrendous,” Post said. “It’s only getting worse.”

In an attempt to curb pollution following historic red tide devastation, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the Clean Waterways Act in 2020, sponsored in the Legislature by Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota. The law doubled fines for wastewater releases, among other regulations. 

The DEP sent a warning letter to Bradenton in September citing two unauthorized sewage discharges from Debby that together gushed more than 50 million gallons of wastewater into the Manatee River. Bradenton officials would not confirm if any of the city’s sewage discharges were preemptive.

Yet state officials could not say if any Suncoast municipalities were fined even a penny for the sewage discharged during last year’s storms.  

“Far too often, these local governments ignored signs and didn’t upgrade (sewage) systems,”

Gruters said. “I just don’t think it was a priority. It hurts everybody, from the people waiting tables to the support staff at the beaches.”

No swimming: Sewage closes Suncoast beaches

For Dave Metcalfe, the impact on water quality cost him 20% of his business last year. 

The owner and operator of Sharkey’s Glass Bottom Tours said he depends on clean water and abundant fish for his tours, which guide customers from the beaches from Clearwater down to New Pass in Sarasota.

The trip along the calm blue waters should be marked with schools of snook, seabirds circling prey and the occasional jumping dolphin. Between the multimillion-dollar mansions and condos that dot the shore, baitfish and small crabs should burrow in the lush maze of protected mangrove roots.

But lately, Metcalfe said local marine life is becoming more scarce. 

“Every year, it gets worse,” Metcalfe said. “We see sea life die right in front of us.”

Nitrogen-rich sewage from back-to-back sewer spills accelerate algae growth and suffocate fish. Long before the widespread kills that make headlines, low fish counts are the first sign of trouble, he said.

To ease the losses, the military veteran and his crew use shallow motorboats to clean dead fish from the water – leaving it to rot will further feed the algae and kill business. 

“We shut down Sarasota again just the other day.” Metcalfe said in January. “The sewage is ridiculous. It was so bad and got so thick, you could literally see crap on the shoreline.”

After almost every significant storm, sewage from failing pipes and lift stations makes its way to area shores – polluting the water with dangerous levels of human waste, shutting down beaches and wiping out sea life. 

Pollution from Hurricane Debby contributed to high levels of bacteria in the water at the Palma Sola South beach in Manatee County, prompting a “no swim” advisory through much of August.

Four weeks later, the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program ran samples that found the open waters from Siesta down to Venice Inlet still had fecal bacteria levels exceeding what the state considers safe for swimming. 

Researchers at Mote Marine Lab & Aquarium also found high concentrations of nitrate and ammonia in the bay, along with elevated turbidity, which tints the water darker.

After Helene in late September, health officials issued an advisory for Brohard Beach in Venice when they found high levels of enterococcus bacteria from fecal pollution, with harmful pathogens and viruses that can make humans critically sick, according to the Florida Department of Health in Sarasota County.

Then as Milton neared, tests at Venice Beach and North Jetty Beach led to advisories in early October.

Dozens of government officials, scientists and environmentalists who spoke to Suncoast Searchlight pointed to the nitrogen-rich sewage pollution as a major contributor to the red tide algae blooms that washed more than 400 tons of rotting fish onto Suncoast beaches in 2017 and pose a threat to the ecosystem and tourism each year.  

Many natural buffers like mangroves and wetlands that would keep sewage from entering tributaries and estuaries have been erased by new real estate development.

Since the start of 2020, the state issued 85 “no swim” advisories between Sarasota and Manatee after finding high concentrations of bacteria at public beaches from Anna Maria to Manasota Key. 

Just seven advisories were outside the Atlantic storm season, according to a Suncoast Searchlight analysis of state sampling data.

The region now faces a reckoning. With sewage spills fueling red tide blooms and “no swim” advisories becoming all too common, local experts warn that the bay’s future is at risk.

“It absolutely damages our bay,” said David Tomasko, executive director of the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program. “The biggest lesson, I think, is you can get a grip on this, but it is going to cost a lot of money.”

Josh Salman is deputy editor/senior investigative reporter for Suncoast Searchlight, a nonprofit newsroom of the Community News Collaborative serving Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto counties. Learn more at suncoastsearchlight.org. 

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