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A gem of Port Richey, the Cotee River, is being dirtied by what neighbors name a shame — human waste spilling into the road and reaching the river.
Captain Bob Hubbard, the proprietor of Island Paradise Charters, despatched the I-Crew a video the place he describes uncooked sewage flowing out of manholes outdoors of his waterfront residence and into the river, to point out what occurs when a tough rain hits.
“Talked to metropolis officers, they don’t even wish to take heed to you,” Hubbard stated within the video. “It must be mounted by some means as a result of that is completely disgusting.”
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Hubbard stated he’s complained to town for years about the issue plaguing paradise, the place he calls residence.
“It’s one thing all of us right here need to cope with, and the neighbors come down they usually name town on a regular basis,” Hubbard stated.
The proprietor of Sunset Landing Marina in Port Richey, Kristin Tonkin, shared an e mail with the I-Crew dated October 2019, the place she contacted town saying she shared Hubbard’s considerations about sewage flowing into the river and hooked up one other video of the problem.
“Oh, it’s so dangerous at instances that — you simply barely maintain your nostril. It stinks. It smells like an outhouse,” one of many marina employees advised the I-Crew. “No matter the issue is, we have to attempt to get a deal with on it or do one thing about it as a result of it’s simply hurting all people.”
Bob Hubbard
“I’ve known as a number of instances, I don’t get a response,” stated John Hainlin, who lives throughout the road from Hubbard on Grand Boulevard.
He’s lived there for the previous 20 years.
“I can say in the previous few years, each time it rains laborious or if it’s been a few days of rain, the manhole cowl simply flows up six inches, generally I’ve seen it pumping out 10 inches, it goes proper right here into the storm drain, proper out to the river,” Hainlin stated. “Yeah, it’s an actual *expletive* storm right here in Port Richey. Actually.”
“My concern is, environmental. Folks getting sick. And after I go on the market on a kayak and go up and down the river, is the water contaminated? In order that’s my massive difficulty,” stated Mike Sheetz, one other neighbor.
The sewage, Hubbard stated, doesn’t cease at his doorstep.
“I’ve a sunken bathtub. If I don’t plug it, it will get uncooked sewage in my home,” Hubbard stated, offering an image of the mess. “I didn’t transfer right here to reside subsequent to a cesspool. It’s a ravishing neighborhood, it’s a ravishing river, nevertheless it’s getting contaminated and to be trustworthy with you, there’s completely no purpose for it. There’s no excuse for this.”
Bob Hubbard
The I-Crew introduced the neighborhood’s considerations to Port Richey City Manager John Dudte, and confirmed him Hubbard’s video.
When requested what he thought, Dudte stated he shared Hubbard’s concern.
“That’s a problem that we have to deal with,” he stated.
Dudte took over as metropolis supervisor in January, bringing contemporary eyes to the Florida neighborhood and Cotee River.
“That basically is the gem of this space,” Dudte stated of the river. “That’s form of the calling card for our small neighborhood.”
Dudte beforehand served as town administrator of Chapman, Kansas. He advised the I-Crew the problem of sewage overflows, “was one in every of a number of priorities I used to be given after I acquired right here.”
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Dudte stated it’s a problem Port Richey shares with neighbors in New Port Richey and Pasco County.
“Within the occasion you get six inches of rain in a single hour, it’s all we are able to do to maintain up,” he stated. “Methods that we’ve got, you realize, it’s simple to say they’re antiquated, and that seems like a cast-off. That’s the actuality in some locations.”
Town supervisor stated town is within the strategy of creating a capital enchancment plan.
“That’s going to have a big amount of cash to deal with previous infrastructure. Infrastructure wears out, similar to the rest does. And when a raise station will get to 30 or 40 years previous, it’s time to restore and change. So I’m completely happy to say the council has seen that as a precedence, they’ve appropriated cash, we’re engaged on a long-term plan to form of prioritize what raise station must be mounted proper now and Chapel is on that listing,” Dudte stated.
Chapel refers back to the raise station impacting Hubbard and his neighbors. The station triggers a warning to town when the sewage degree begins to rise and, as Hubbard has seen at instances, spill over.
“It’s a very severe state of affairs and the state views it as such,” Dudte stated. “If there’s a spill, that will get documented, it will get handled and it will get reported to the state.”
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The I-Crew reviewed state data and located, since 2017, Port Richey has reported 14 spills to the Division of Environmental Safety.
All through 2020, Florida PEER (Public Staff for Environmental Duty) monitored those emergency alerts of sewage overflows throughout the state.
The studies are supposed to incorporate the variety of gallons spilled and cleaned up and if it impacted any physique of water, as PEER identified in its report, launched in September. However that doesn’t at all times occur.
The nonprofit discovered, taking a look at simply 12 counties, together with Hillsborough, Pinellas and Sarasota, there have been 856 notifications to the state final yr. That accounted for greater than 126 million gallons spilled. Most of it, practically 110 million, based on state studies, made it into the water.
Port Richey’s metropolis supervisor stated it’s an issue shared by communities throughout Florida.
“To the extent during which we reply to and mitigate sewage issues, that’s on us and we work laborious to reduce that,” Dudte stated.
Port Richey not too long ago purchased a brand new half-million-dollar vacuum truck to assist pump sewage from town’s getting old raise stations.
“That’s a giant buy for a small city like this, that’s some huge cash to cope with this difficulty particularly,” Dudte stated. “Clear water and soiled water is a excessive precedence for the Metropolis of Port Richey.”
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Hubbard stated they’ll’t maintain ready.
“There’s a whole lot of dolphins in right here, manatees swim up right here by my dock on a regular basis, birds, pelicans, they eat fish out of right here, ospreys, so it impacts all the pieces. All of the residents, wildlife, all people will get affected by it,” he stated. “It’s been uncared for, and we’re annoyed and we’re bored with it.”
Town supervisor advised the I-Crew Port Richey will start seeing modifications within the subsequent six months to a yr, as they work to finalize the capital enchancment plan and begin upgrading raise stations.
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