By Jeremy Morrison
Knowing that the waters off Bruce Beach in downtown Pensacola are fouled with human waste is one thing. Figuring out the source of the contamination is quite another.
This became clear during the first public discussion between the two entities addressing this issue when Pensacola officials inquired about the estimated timeline for the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority to determine how sewage enters the stormwater system. This process entails checking out downtown’s subterranean infrastructure.
“The only challenge in answering that question is knowing what we’ll find and how quickly we’ll be able to find it,” said Don Palmer, ECUA’s deputy executive director of engineering and environmental services, during the Pensacola City Council’s Agenda Review on Monday, May 23.
Palmer had just wrapped up a presentation regarding ECUA’s plan for determining and addressing this issue of contaminated stormwater entering the waterways, and, in summary, he informed the city that much of the downtown area had already been inspected and upgraded over the past decade as part of the agency’s ongoing efforts to address aging, leaking infrastructure region-wide as per the requirements of a 2012 consent order issued by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Downtown’s sewage infrastructure is some of the city’s oldest, with terra cotta pipes dating back to the late 1800s. As such, the area was among the first that ECUA addressed under the consent order. ECUA essentially replaced the terra cotta pipes via a method called cast-in-place, which overlays a continuous pipeline along the old infrastructure.
“Most prioritized areas are actually in the downtown area,” Palmer explained, “and that would make sense in terms of age.”
Since 2012, ECUA has spent about $76 million on infrastructure rehab. About $25 million of that amount has been spent in the downtown area, which constitutes a stormwater basin that drains to Bruce Beach and an area east of Maritime Park.
According to Palmer, while ECUA has rehabilitated much of downtown’s wastewater infrastructure, approximately 30 percent of the infrastructure –the lateral lines traveling off the main lines –are privately owned and remain largely untended.
“So, there’s quite a bit of linear feet that we don’t have control over,” Palmer told city council members.
ECUA’s plan in the next 30 days is to conduct dye testing, detergent testing, and fecal testing of the wastewater lines. While dye and detergent testing will produce more immediate in-the-field results, the fecal tests must be sent to a lab. ECUA will also inspect some of downtown’s more significant wastewater sources, such as Pensacola City Hall and the judicial center, to ensure those lateral lines are sound. Additionally, the city will conduct inspections of its stormwater infrastructure.
Although Palmer cautioned city officials that determining the source of wastewater infiltration into the stormwater system—which empties into the bay—may be a difficult, lengthy process, Mayor Grover Robinson noted that perhaps the timeline would be sped up due to recent research provided to the city through a University of West Florida professor, which indicated several potential sources of infiltration downtown.
“I hope you will use that map as a kind of tool,” Robinson stressed to Palmer, referencing the map’s color-code system. “The last thing I want to do is send you into green areas when we have some red ones.”
While downtown Pensacola’s problem with wastewater leaking from aging infrastructure is nothing new, the effort to address the problem at Bruce Beach has taken on a sense of urgency. City officials are looking to address the issue as they move forward with nearly $7 million in improvements slated for the municipal beach, which are meant to attract more people to the waterfront and improve downtown access and walkability.
