FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Fort Lauderdale city commissioners voted to spend $65 million on sewage repairs as the city is still caught in a stink.
Residents are demanding answers after the area’s biggest sewage spill went on for weeks after six sewer line breaks.
“The thing that’s really disappointing is how ill-prepared the city was for the emergency situation that arose,” resident Mimi Sall said. “They did not have a plan. They did not have extra equipment available.”
Resident Mark Lynch said that the city was not keeping up with the situation. “I mean, this shouldn’t be something that’s kept — they gotta know there’s a problem,” he said.
“We, as a community, need to stop the finger pointing,” said one resident. “We need to get behind you, help you figure out the solution.”
City commissioners met at Fort Lauderdale City Hall to discuss plans for future resolutions, Tuesday.
Residents asked that commissioners act quickly and criticized their response so far.
“In my opinion, the community has experienced a true public health crisis at this point,” said one resident.
“‘Cause everyone knows that emergencies are more expensive than if you had a plan,” said one resident. “You don’t have a plan. You’re under emergency. You’re under consent order. You have got to get this together.”
Fort Lauderdale City Manager Chris Lagerbloom addressed city commissioners in regards to what has happened thus far and what they plan to do going forward.
Experts released Monday that the recent six leaks spilled nearly 128 million gallons of sewage into the Tarpon River and the Himmarshee Canal.
“We can’t keep chasing breaks on these pipes,” said Lagerbloom. “There’s no reason to think that the condition is any different 40 feet down, 60 feet down or 80 feet down.”
The leaks have been capped but have not been permanently fixed.
Repairs that were scheduled to begin in the future will now begin as soon as possible.
The best case scenario is that the repairs take a year and a half to complete.
“We have to move fast and that’s been the theme through this whole push of December into January,” said Lagerbloom. “Yesterday is the deadline we’re looking for.”
“It’s unconscionable for the city not to have been prepared for this,” Sall said.
There is still the possibility of hefty state fines for any environmental damage that resulted from dumping raw sewage into waterways.
City officials said dumping into waterways was a painful decision to make.
“It would have found it’s way there naturally,” said Lagerbloom. “If we hadn’t done that, it would have likely found itself there anyway, and along the way, we would have just had homes that had sewage in them.”
Work crews plan to build new pipes then line the old ones, so they will have two systems in the event that another break occurs.
Commissioners asked the city manager what caused the multiple breaks.
“The consistent theme in these pipes is age and condition,” said Lagerbloom. “I mean, these pipes were installed in 1973, so when you look at the pipe and look at the corrosion that is on them and the fact that the bottoms of the pipe are separating because the wall thickness is reduced to zero.”
Residents were given a platform to address city commissioners during Tuesday’s meeting.
Commissioners said they hope that if they do get fined by the state, it will allow those dollars to be spent on improvements to the system.
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