A few notes regarding the sewer spill into Cypress..
I have received lots of comments about this spill, and a youtube video of the spill which is hard to watch.
We think its time to raise the level of “heat”, so when you get a change, think about the river, think about your property values, think about your property taxes, think about the high cancer rate in AA county, the pollution and wonder if there is a correlation between them, then call a few of these numbers and ask questions:
AA County public works: 410 222 7931
Cathy Vitale cvitale@aacounty.org or 410-544-4937/410-222-1401.
Watch the sewer spill here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKnkSIjsHUo
Brian Oates Sends the following:
Spoke with State official in charge of waste water facilities compliance. I've got a call into construction/engineering dept. in state dept. of public works. They set guidelines in pumping station designs. State's office of compliance has a protocol requiring County to report cause, solution and and will be following up repair and assessment of equipment.
County: I had a long conversation with Ron Neugebauer in County's Public works waste water administration, in public works. My inquiry had to do with monitoring alarms.
1. There are 250 pumping stations
2. 7 water treatment plants
3. There are alarms monitoring performance at pump stations.
Alarm went out, a mechanic was contacted Tuesday and arrived at 'Big Cypress' station in approximately 1 hour. He determined back up generator failed and call other mechanics for equipment. There is not a clear timeline, but according to Ms. Wood in Capital 4, hours. Generator is 300 hp. Tank truck was brought to pump out holding well.
Mr. Newgebauer was generous with his time and provided assurance the County's team is sensitive and on the job. Asked if he had any suggestions for any additional equipment needed. He said in this incidence he did not feel system was lacking, "mechanical stuff breaks". The back up generator was last tested May 14th and monthly inspections are a part of the protocol.
The 'Round Bay' pump station, just south on route from McKinsey was the source of previous pumping station failure. This directly effected Cypress Creek, the station was under re-construction at the time of failure.
You know of the failures at College Parkway; pump blocked by a basket ball and the subsequent failure of forced main. The latter, was the biggest failure in County history, resulted in relining the forced main pipes.
My understanding of statistics, (given the concentration of problems in a single geographical area), would lead me to a conclusion of mismanagement. The conversation with Mr. Neugebauer assuaged my concern.
Sorry it happen again, particularly with the opening of summer.
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Subsequent to my email and discussion with the County, the Capital published a story about another failure at the 'Big Cypress' pumping station. There are videos on youtube, showing leak. Person who shot the video allegedly contacted public works, which denied receiving the call. Capital said a mechanic just happened to show up. I contacted Ron Neugebauer (AACO waste water) again and stated he had misinformed me about station's alarm monitoring system. His response was 'alarms are on the inflow side and not on the discharge side'. Manhattan Beach (Cypress, Dividing and Mill creek) have been slammed. The concentration of failures is statistically significant and hopefully atypical.. Hundreds of thousands of gallons overwhelms all citizens' efforts, it's unacceptable. I appreciate waste water is a major municipal component, but the externalities of these failures are catastrophic to creeks, river and bay. It diminishes our property values and thus a 'taking' by the failure of the County to properly operate the waste water system.
This is not rocket science. We could set up visual monitoring, accessible via internet of all these stations for less than $2000, per station. Let me know, we can write up a business plan and get Cathy Vitale get us an audience.
Seriously, you're on the front line, oyster farming and picking up dog waste is great, but given these failures, those efforts are in vain.
I was thinking about contacting Pam Wood, environmental reporter at the Captial, and inviting her to the beach replenishment project. We have to apply pressure at multiple points in the system, this is important.