BRADENTON, Fla. — Four environmental groups have put the city of Bradenton on notice that they plan to sue if nothing is done to stop sewage discharges into area waterways.
Suncoast Waterkeeper, Our Children’s Earth Foundation, ManaSota-88, and Tampa Bay Waterkeeper say that in the last four years, more than 160 million gallons of raw and partially treated sewage was dumped into the Manatee River by the city's treatment plant.
Most recently, the groups said the city bypassed 13 million gallons this August.
That's why they say they plan to sue over the "serious and ongoing violations of the federal Clean Water Act" within 60 days if no resolution is met.
“Bradenton’s sewage woes are unfortunate and follow a familiar pattern of municipalities neglecting critical environmental infrastructure. We hope that Bradenton will follow the path of the other municipalities that we’ve sued and focus their attention of fixing the problems and reducing the sewage pollution that plagues our waterways," founder and board member of Suncoast Waterkeeper, Justin Bloom said in a statement.
The environmental groups also claim the sewage discharges contain human waste, solvents, pesticides, paint and other chemicals discarded from people's homes and businesses.
“Bradenton’s sewage spills pose a serious public health risk in exposing members of the public to sewage-borne pathogens and various toxic pollutants,” said Annie Beaman of Our Children’s Earth. “This pollution also harms aquatic wildlife and degrades fragile ecosystems. The Manatee River cannot take it, and people deserve clean water. It is time for the City to prioritize water quality. If we invest in clean water now, we can avoid much higher costs to people and the environment in the future.”
But Bradenton's City Administrator, Rob Perry, says the discharges are reasonably within the limits of their permit, especially given the fact that the city is dealing with aging infrastructure.
"It's unfortunate but aged infrastructure in Bradenton is like aged infrastructure throughout Florida, it doesn't keep up with the demands. And so we have embarked on a fairly aggressive capital program to bring about infrastructure improvements for sewage collection, drainage and stormwater," Perry said.
According to Perry, the problems the city's infrastructure is facing didn't just appear overnight and take time and money to fix. Each year he says the city sets aside a portion of its capital resources to put it into stormwater and sewage infrastructure improvement projects.
"Infiltration and inflow, the problems that cause these types of discharges, they're not a mushroom patch that just popped up overnight. These are 50 and 70-year-old infrastructure systems, basically, and with heavy rains and growing populations and the like, they really weren't designed to handle the challenges," Perry said.
The city plans to work with the environmental groups to look at the permit and find solutions that will help minimize the discharges.
Bradenton is currently looking at up to $6 million in improvements to the city's water processing system, according to Perry. He also said rubberized liners are being considered to prevent future overloads during heavy rains.
"We want to be good stewards of our environment and try to do that each and every day," Perry said.