Neighbors fed up with ongoing sewage spills

A gem of Port Richey, the Cotee River, is being dirtied by what neighbors telephone a disgrace — quality discarded spilling into the thoroughfare and reaching the river.

Captain Bob Hubbard, the proprietor of Island Paradise Charters, sent the I-Team a video wherever helium describes earthy sewage flowing retired of manholes extracurricular of his waterfront location and into the river, to amusement what happens erstwhile a hard rainfall hits.

“Talked to metropolis officials, they don’t adjacent privation to perceive to you,” Hubbard said successful the video. “It needs to beryllium fixed someway due to the fact that this is perfectly disgusting.”

Hubbard said he’s complained to the metropolis for years astir the occupation plaguing paradise, the spot helium calls home.

“It’s thing each of america present person to woody with, and the neighbors travel down and they telephone the metropolis each the time,” Hubbard said.

The proprietor of Sunset Landing Marina successful Port Richey, Kristin Tonkin, shared an email with the I-Team dated October 2019, wherever she contacted the metropolis saying she shared Hubbard's concerns astir sewage flowing into the stream and attached different video of the issue.

“Oh, it’s truthful atrocious astatine times that — you conscionable hardly clasp your nose. It stinks. It smells similar an outhouse,” 1 of the marina workers told the I-Team. “Whatever the occupation is, we request to effort to get a grip connected it oregon bash thing astir it due to the fact that it’s conscionable hurting everybody.”

“I’ve called respective times, I don’t get a response," said John Hainlin, who lives crossed the thoroughfare from Hubbard connected Grand Boulevard.

He’s lived determination for the past 20 years.

“I tin accidental successful the past fewer years, each clip it rains hard oregon if it’s been a mates of days of rain, the manhole screen conscionable flows up six inches, sometimes I’ve seen it pumping retired 10 inches, it goes close present into the tempest drain, close retired to the river,” Hainlin said. “Yeah, it’s a existent *expletive* tempest present successful Port Richey. Literally.”

“My interest is, environmental. People getting sick. And erstwhile I spell retired determination connected a kayak and spell up and down the river, is the h2o contaminated? So that’s my large issue," said Mike Sheetz, different neighbor.

The sewage, Hubbard said, doesn’t halt astatine his doorstep.

“I person a sunken bathtub. If I don’t plug it, it gets earthy sewage successful my house,” Hubbard said, providing a representation of the mess. “I didn’t determination present to unrecorded adjacent to a cesspool. It’s a beauteous community, it’s a beauteous river, but it’s getting contaminated and to beryllium honorable with you, there’s perfectly nary crushed for it. There’s nary excuse for this.”

The I-Team brought the community’s concerns to Port Richey City Manager John Dudte, and showed him Hubbard’s video.

When asked what helium thought, Dudte said helium shared Hubbard’s concern.

“That’s a situation that we request to address," helium said.

Dudte took implicit arsenic metropolis manager successful January, bringing caller eyes to the Florida assemblage and Cotee River.

“That truly is the gem of this area,” Dudte said of the river. “That’s benignant of the calling paper for our tiny community.”

Dudte antecedently served arsenic the metropolis head of Chapman, Kansas. He told the I-Team the contented of sewage overflows, “was 1 of respective priorities I was fixed erstwhile I got here.”

Dudte said it’s a situation Port Richey shares with neighbors successful New Port Richey and Pasco County.

“In the lawsuit you get six inches of rainfall successful 1 hour, it’s each we tin bash to support up,” helium said. “Systems that we have, you know, it’s casual to accidental they’re antiquated, and that sounds similar a cast-off. That is the world successful immoderate places.”

The metropolis manager said the metropolis is successful the process of processing a superior betterment plan.

“That’s going to person a important magnitude of wealth to code aged infrastructure. Infrastructure wears out, conscionable similar thing other does. And erstwhile a assistance presumption gets to 30 oregon 40 years old, it’s clip to repair and replace. So I’m blessed to accidental the assembly has seen that arsenic a priority, they’ve appropriated money, we’re moving connected a semipermanent program to benignant of prioritize what assistance presumption needs to beryllium fixed close present and Chapel is connected that list,” Dudte said.

Chapel refers to the assistance presumption impacting Hubbard and his neighbors. The presumption triggers a informing to the metropolis erstwhile the sewage level starts to emergence and, arsenic Hubbard has seen astatine times, spill over.

“It is simply a precise superior concern and the authorities views it arsenic such,” Dudte said. “If determination is simply a spill, that gets documented, it gets treated and it gets reported to the state.”

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The I-Team reviewed state data and found, since 2017, Port Richey has reported 14 spills to the Department of Environmental Protection.

Throughout 2020, Florida PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility) monitored those exigency alerts of sewage overflows crossed the state.

The reports are expected to see the fig of gallons spilled and cleaned up and if it impacted immoderate assemblage of water, arsenic PEER pointed retired successful its report, released successful September. But that doesn’t ever happen.

The nonprofit found, looking astatine conscionable 12 counties, including Hillsborough, Pinellas and Sarasota, determination were 856 notifications to the authorities past year. That accounted for much than 126 cardinal gallons spilled. Most of it, astir 110 million, according to authorities reports, made it into the water.

Port Richey’s metropolis manager said it’s a occupation shared by communities crossed Florida.

“To the grade successful which we respond to and mitigate sewage problems, that’s connected america and we enactment hard to minimize that,” Dudte said.

Port Richey precocious bought a caller half-million-dollar vacuum motortruck to assistance pump sewage from the city’s aging assistance stations.

“That’s a large acquisition for a tiny municipality similar this, that’s a batch of wealth to woody with this contented specifically,” Dudte said. “Clean h2o and soiled h2o is simply a precocious precedence for the City of Port Richey.”

Hubbard said they can’t support waiting.

“There’s a batch of dolphins successful here, manatees aquatics up present by my dock each the time, birds, pelicans, they devour food retired of here, ospreys, truthful it affects everything. All the residents, wildlife, everybody gets affected by it,” helium said. “It’s been neglected, and we’re frustrated and we’re bushed of it.”

The metropolis manager told the I-Team Port Richey volition statesman seeing changes successful the adjacent six months to a year, arsenic they enactment to finalize the superior betterment program and commencement upgrading assistance stations.