PORT ST. LUCIE — About 500,000 gallons of sewage spilled at a former city wastewater facility on November 10 after a contractor accidentally hit a pump, city officials said. Crews recovered most of it, and the city says no surface water or public areas were affected.
Scott Samples, Port St. Lucie’s public information officer, said the facility is in a rural part of the city. A contractor was doing work there when the accident happened.
“We had a contractor who was doing some work there, hit a pump that caused the spill,” Samples said.
Samples said crews used a vacuum truck to recover roughly 450,000 gallons.
“We were able to use a vacuum truck to get up almost all of the sewage that came up,” he said.
About 50,000 gallons soaked into the ground. Samples said crews spread lime over the area to disinfect it, as the city does in these situations.
“So there were no surface water or public access areas affected,” Samples said.
Samples said state and local regulatory agencies were notified. Neither soil nor water sampling was required.
Samples said the location helped crews contain the spill quickly. They were able to use a nearby lift station, which pumps wastewater to treatment, to send the sewage back into the system.
“It was fortunate to a degree that it occurred where it did,” Samples said. “We were able to utilize an existing lift station to pump the wastewater back into it.”
The city expects the contractor to cover all costs from the incident, including the cleanup.
“We were expecting them to pay for all the costs associated with the incident, including the cleanup,” Samples said.