Results of county smoke testing of sewer lines in South Patrick Shores, Satellite Beach and Indian Harbour Beach, prompted by Hurricane Irma flooding, have revealed part of what caused system backups requiring the release of nearly 20 million gallons in sewage into local canals.
The bad news is that the testing showed the culprits: damaged clean-out plugs (4-inch-round plastic fittings found in front yards) and lateral lines. Both are the property owners’ responsibility to replace, and in some cases that likely won’t be done by the height of the 2019 hurricane season.
The good news is only 100 problems (70 clean-out plugs, 30 lateral lines) were found out of the 5,165 properties tested, and both Indian Harbour Beach and Brevard County have stepped in to help homeowners with repairs. Brevard County operates the wastewater system on the barrier island from a South Melbourne Beach treatment plant.
All residents with either a lateral line issue or a damaged clean-out plug have been notified, utility officials said, and the simpler plug fixes were done along the way as owners were made aware of the issue.
The Indian Harbour Beach City Council recently waived building permit fees for about a dozen properties found by the testing to be needing lateral line repairs. Meanwhile, Brevard County, for the lateral line breaks, is developing a grant program to help pay for the work up to $10,000 per property. Future grants are being considered for the more severe clean-out plug problems.
Plumbing contractors are normally hired to do the work, with grant programs expected to be on a reimbursement basis.
Smoke testing is the process of forcing smoke-filled air into the sewer system. The smoke under pressure fills the line and any loose connections or breaks in the sewer line will allow the smoke to escape and surface through the ground or pipework.
The consultant calculated that the potential intrusion for broken clean-outs identified by the smoke testing is 853,000 gallons per day; the potential for the lateral deficiencies is 70,000 gallons per day.
While older neighborhoods were suspected as the cause of the leaks, the deficiencies were shown to be evenly dispersed throughout the area, said Anthony Gubler, environmental specialist serving as the lead on wastewater programs with the Save Our Indian River Lagoon Program.
There were no official expectations for the extent of the lateral line problems by the Save Our Indian River Lagoon Project – and those deficiencies in themselves didn’t cause the Irma backups; experts know that inflow and infiltration into the lines is an important component in sewer plant capacity, Gubler said.
The smoke testing program might not have found huge problems, but it has helped in other ways in terms of community understanding of the issues, he said. “The smoke testing has been very successful in raising awareness in the need to maintain private sewer laterals, which are typically out-of-sight and out-of-mind,’’ he said.
The Save Our Indian River Lagoon Project Plan has a pilot project to rehabilitate private sewer lateral lines identified with deficiencies in the smoke testing.
The goal of the project is to assist homeowners in repairing their laterals with reimbursements up to $10,000 for the entire project cost, said county spokesman Don Walker.
As part of the grant program, a county environmental consultant will conduct sampling of the groundwater around lateral line deficiencies before and after repairs to assess if any sewage may be leaking. The results of the groundwater sampling will be used to consider expansion of this program.
For more information or to find out if your property was found to have problems, call Anthony Gubler at 321-205-7712.