Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Situation ‘horrendous’ after another pipe break
Sewage spilling into Middle River after city’s seventh such incident in 2 months
Fort Lauderdale’s sewage problems surged once again with the city’s seventh pipe break in less than two months, flooding a street, leaking sewage into the Middle River and closing a popular park.
A 42-inch sewage pipe that runs under the Middle River broke Thursday morning, spewing sewage into the Middle River near George English Park at Bayview Drive and Sunrise Boulevard, across the street from the Galleria mall.
City officials called the break “major” and termed the situation “horrendous.”
The large pipe broke, and “part of the flow is backing up into storm drains and that’s causing partial flooding on Bayview Drive, and part going into Middle River,” said city spokesman Chaz
Adams.
By 9 p.m., there was still no word of how much sewage has been spilled and officials don’t know exactly where the break is located.
Crews have to suck up the floodwaters before they can start digging where they believe the break is so they can deter
“It’s a major break. We’re doing our best to stop the flow into the waterway. It’s getting ahead of us . ... We are racing to replace these pipes that have been neglected for years.”
— Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis
mine the extent of the damage and come up with a repair plan. Vacuum trucks have been at it all day, and crews should be able to start digging sometime this evening, Adams said.
They hope to have the break repaired within 36 to 48 hours, Adams said. To do that, they’ll have to install two line stops, one on each side of the damaged portion of the pipe, and then connect a bypass line to the pipe to direct flow around the damaged area of the pipe. Then they can remove the damaged section and replace it with a new pipe.
The cause of the break is still being investigated, Adams said.
Mayor Dean Trantalis said the “toxic” smell in the area gave him a headache. “This is not healthy,” he said. “The atmosphere is not healthy. It’s horrendous.
“It’s a major break. We’re doing our best to stop the flow into the waterway. It’s getting ahead of us,” he said. The pipe is “so brittle. We are racing to replace these pipes that have been neglected for years.”
Adams said roads are not affected. The lake and boat ramp at George English Park are closed.
“All the city crews are mobilizing in attempt to stop the flow. It’s a large break,” Commissioner Steve Glassman said.
People should avoid water activities such as paddle-boarding, jet-skiing, swimming and fishing in the area from Northeast 26th Street to Las Olas Boulevard and from North Victoria Park Road to the Intracoastal. George English Park is typically a prime spot for training and recreational activities.
Because the city’s sewer system and water system operate independently from each other, a sewer main break does not affect the water system, so a boilwater notice will not be issued.
Fort Lauderdale has had a glut of pipe problems. Last month the break was along a 16-inch pipe in the Victoria Park neighborhood, along Northeast Fifth Street between Northeast 16th and Northeast 17th avenues. Sewage poured into people’s driveways. The city has vowed to fix its pipe problem, and said it is weaning itself off of the practice of siphoning off millions of dollars collected to fix crumbling pipes that keep bursting across the city. Since 2012, more than $130 million the city has collected for water and sewer upkeep has been used for police, parks, salaries and other city expenses.
Two pipes in different sections of the city are thought to have burst simultaneously in June 2016 as workers doing repairs at the wastewater plant were switching the sewage flow into the plant from one pipe to another. The sewage spills at George English Park and under the Himmarshee Canal totaled almost 15 million gallons.
After the December sewage breaks, no testing was done on the Middle River north of Sunrise Boulevard near George English Park. A group of paddle-boarders concerned about the waterway collected water samples for their own testing and found them problematic.
Timothy Myers, a regular paddle-boarder, has been urging the city to test samples from the Middle River.
“We absolutely saw this coming, and today proved it,” he said. “It’s become a new normal and the city has taken a reactive stance and not proactive.”
Glassman said the effect on kayakers “is a major concern for us. It’s a heavy recreated part of our city in terms of watercraft.”
In February 2016, work to repair a sewer line rupture of a 42-year-old pipe in the Tarpon River neighborhood contributed to or caused a sharp increase in pressure that led to another break — and 1.8 million gallons of spilled sewage — two days later at Regal Trace Apartments near Sistrunk Boulevard.
Also last month, the first spill was in the Rio Vista neighborhood on the south side of the Tarpon River. Two days after the sewage flow was stopped, the same pipe ruptured in Rio Vista on the north side of the Tarpon River. A day after that, a pipe on the same line ruptured under the Himmarshee Canal, right where the fix had been made on the pipe three years earlier.