BRADENTON, Fla. — Heavy rain overwhelmed the sewer system in Sarasota this weekend.
26 million gallons of reclaimed water has been discharged from a storage pond at the Bee Ridge Water Reclamation Facility.
Reclaimed water is water that's been treated to use on your lawn, but it's not safe to drink. It also has higher levels of nitrogen, which can cause algae blooms.
Eventually, this water flows out into the Gulf of Mexico.
A similar problem in Manatee County started last Wednesday when the utility department got a call about a sewer overflow on 21st Street East.
Five manholes and several cleanouts were discharging wastewater, adding up to 70,000 gallons.
There were also discharges in New Port Richey where two manholes released about 5,000 gallons.
As of a week ago, the most wastewater spills by volume this year were in Pinellas County, where more than one million gallons had spilled.
Florida Department of Environmental Protection records shows Pasco County had more than 800,000 gallons spilled in the last year.
Hillsborough County had about half of that, and Manatee had about 45,000 gallons spilled in 2019. That's about the amount it would take to fill one and a half backyard swimming pools.
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