As Tallahassee residents' cry for help, Mayor Dailey wants answers on sewage spill impacts

Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey wants to know how the city is helping residents recently affected by sewage backups – and what city workers are doing to make sure it doesn't keep happening.

"I think there's been ... maybe a half dozen claims regarding sewage backup in houses and I would like to know specifically what the city of Tallahassee intends to do with engaging with these residents," Dailey said at the last city commission meeting.

The capital was faced with what weather officials have called "a bicentennial storm" on April 11 for its rarity and sheer volume of rain. The deluge led to severe flooding, which overworked several pump station basins and resulting in sewer overflows.

Dailey asked staff at the April 24 commission meeting to provide an update to commissioners on the city's response.

A day after the storm, the city reported 11 sewage spills to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The precise or estimated amount of sewage spilled from each location remains unknown. A city spokesperson could not answer how much sewage was spilled and said the city is waiting on a full report.

There is also little known about what natural bodies of water might have been affected by the spill.

One resident emailed the city manager that a clogged city pipe outside pushed raw sewage into his home, making it "temporarily uninhabitable."

"The financial burden of this sewage backup and contamination of our home is devastating and should not be our sole responsibility," wrote Todd Broadway, who lives on Meridiana Drive.

In mid-April the Tallahassee Democrat also spoke to Kelly Manu, a resident whose home address address was listed as a source of a spill when the city reported the overflow to DEP. She described a manhole cover outside her home that looked like a "mini-volcano."

After her garage was flooded with a foot of water, Manu and her family now have a long list of ruined items totaling an estimated $10,000. And they're faced with another estimated $20,000 bill to reclaim the garage.

The spills come after the city was slapped with an $18,000 fine from DEP in February after substantial amounts of sewage spilled into the streets between July 1, 2023, and Dec. 1, 2023. As previously reported, it was the second fine DEP has issued the city, which incurred a total of almost $45,000 in fines, for incidents that led to more than 1.3 million gallons of sewage spewing out of the system last year.

In 2011, the city entered into a consent order with the DEP, which included penalties for "untimely corrective action" when sanitary sewers overflow.

On Monday, the city reported a 9,300 gallon sewage spill that occurred a day earlier at 3150 Apalachee Parkway. City staffers noted that repair crews were immediately dispatched and determined a broke air-release valve within a utility easement caused the overflow into Lafayette Creek.

"Crews cleaned, disinfected, and deodorized impacted soils and were able to recover approximately 41,000-gallons of stormwater mixed with wastewater," city staffers reported in the pollution notice.

Sewage spills affecting residents across the city

Several people have contacted the Tallahassee Democrat sharing stories of sewage backups causing damage to their homes and how the city has responded to their reports.

A common claim is that the city has been less than communicative, as families throughout the city deal with the damages and fend for themselves.

Broadway bought his first home with his fiancé, Nichole Mittness, in the Waverly Hills neighborhood, two months before the storm. They woke up the morning after the storm to find their bathrooms flooding with sewage water, bubbling up from bathtubs and toilets.

The city "said it was stormwater, which means that it's a flood, and I should have flood insurance," Mittness said.

The couple added that they have reached out to several city officials – and, like Dailey, have yet to get a satisfactory response.

"We are searching for answers, wanting to draw attention to this ongoing issue that the city seems to be refusing to address, and seeking resolution to this health hazard effecting our community," Broadway wrote in his letter to the city manager.

Arianna Otero is the City Solutions Reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact her via email at AOtero@tallahassee.com or on Twitter/X: @ari_v_otero.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Tallahassee sewage spills: Mayor responds after residents cry for help