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Sewer Pipe Leak Leads To Testing

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By MIKE SALINERO

msalinero@tampatrib.com

Published: November 25, 2008

SUN CITY CENTER - Residents are complaining that Hillsborough County's water department pumped raw sewage from a broken pipe into a lake where hundreds of people have waterfront homes.

Water department officials say they thought they were pumping groundwater into a storm drain, part of excavating a leaking sewer line 17 feet underground. The drain flows to Middle Lake, where there are 103 homes, said Dave Brown, a Sun City Center resident and activist.

"Residents fish and boat on the lake," Brown wrote in an e-mail to The Tampa Tribune. "The water is used for lawn irrigation. That means that we'll be spreading raw sewage water on our lawns. With Thanksgiving coming, that means that visiting grandchildren are going to be playing on lawns coated with raw sewage."

The water department took water samples Monday around the lake, in the storm drain and where the water is pumped from underground. Lab results from the sampling will be ready today, said Michelle Van Dyke, spokeswoman for the county water resources department.

"I understand there is high hydrogen sulfide content in groundwater," Van Dyke said. "That would make it smell like sewage."

Signs were posted around the lake warning people to stay out of the water.

A contractor for the water department discovered a leak Wednesday night while doing camera inspections of a 12-inch sewer line along Del Webb Boulevard, Van Dyke said. Because the water table in that area is high, groundwater had to be pumped out before the leaking section of pipe could be excavated, she said.

Workers were beginning to dig out the pipe Monday morning, Van Dyke said.

Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303.

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