Every time we get a heavy rain event in Southwest Florida, I make a little wager in my head. It’s not about how many inches of rain will be recorded, or how many homes will be flooded out. It’s how much sewage will get spilled.
Tropical Storm Debby was a major rainmaker, and my bet was 5 million gallons. Turns out I should have gone higher: Local news sources reported at least 6.6 million gallons of untreated or partially treated sewage was spilled in Manatee and Sarasota counties, most of it into local waterways.
More than half of that total — 3.5 million gallons — was spilled from a single treatment plant in Bradenton. That’s a whole lot of sewage, and it went directly into the Manatee River.
I have not seen any numbers released for Charlotte or Lee counties. But if you think that means there wasn’t any, I have a bridge to sell you.
Why does this keep happening? Because there’s no real incentive to prevent it. These rain events are “acts of God,” “unprecedented,” “unforeseeable.” Yeah, we never could have seen this coming. It’s not like we’ve had (checks notes) 81 tropical storms and hurricanes come through Southwest Florida (between Naples and St. Petersburg) since 1858. That’s one every two years.