Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Wildlife is dying amid sewage spill
First, it was the stench. Next, it was the mucky, murkiness visibly fouling the canal. Now, it’s the dead wildlife floating on the surface.
A dead snapper. A lifeless iguana. A floating frog. A large snail and a few small fish could be seen this week atop the stinky, contaminated waterway behind homes in Pompano Beach’s Garden Isles subdivision.
County officials said a dead manatee was spotted and residents said a neighbor pulled a dead bird from the water that was tainted by sewage Friday when a contractor working on the Interstate 95 expansion broke a 42-inch wastewater pipe.
“It’s pretty gross,” said Lauren DePaci, who lives on the 300 block of Southeast Fifth Avenue. “The whole neighborhood is totally
bummed.”
DePaci’s next door neighbor, Laurie Seltzer, lamented the lifelessness of her backyard waterway. “The canal is usally alive,” she said.
Dock builders couldn’t complete their work behind DePaci’s house on Monday because of the foul odor, DePaci said. “They couldn’t stay. They said they were actually getting sick.”
DePaci frequently paddleboards across the canal to visit with neighbors, she said. “Nobody’s paddleboarding now.”
Pompano Beach has warned residents in a large swath of the city to avoid swimming or fishing in a canal or using the water to irrigate properties. Drinking water is safe to drink, cook with or bathe in, a city spokeswoman said Monday.
The areas affected by the tainted canal begin at the Garden Isles neighborhood, between Northwest 15th Street and West Atlantic Boulevard, and span from Interstate 95 east to the Intracoastal Waterway, she said.
Concerned residents have invited local officials to a community meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday. It will be held at American Legion Post 142, 171 SW 2nd St., Pompano Beach.
“We’re hoping to get better information about what they’re going to do to clean it up sooner than than later,” said DePaci, who spearheaded the meeting.
The sewage continued to spill until Thursday afternoon, six days after the pipe ruptured.
The parts necessary to build a 360-foot bypass pipe were ordered from Texas and arrived Wednesday. Concrete to construct the pipe was poured, and once the concrete set on Thursday the bypass line was connected, said city spokeswoman Sandra King.
“The clean up continues around the clock,” she said.
Other measures the city has taken include:
--Five aerators have been placed in the canals creating oxygen to minimize the odor.
--Nine turbidity barriers have been placed under water near the site of the spill to catch floating debris.
--Vacuuming to remove floating debris from the C1 canal.
--A removal company has been hired and has started removing the dead fish from the canals.
“The flow should be back in the sewer line and no longer in the canal,” said Sermin Turegun, director of Broward County’s environmental engineering and permitting division.
After a resident reported seeing a dead manatee, the county alerted the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, she said.
A spokeswoman for the state agency could not be immediately reached Thursday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the county will continue to do its own site visits and water testing.
“We’ve asked the city to update us twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon,” Turegun said.
A violation could bring a warning or fine, she said.
Officials have told residents it could be a month or two before the canal returns to normal, DePaci said. “I think it’s going to be a heck of a lot longer than that.”
“We’re just now starting to see all the dead fish,” she said Wednesday. “It breaks my heart. You almost want to cry.”
A week ago the canal was clear as could be, DePaci’s husband, Mike, said.
“Now it’s murky, there’s no fish in the water anymore. The tarpon were chasing the mullet and they were all jumping around,” he said. “Not now. Find me a bird now; they’re gone.”