Sarasota vice mayor Mary Anne Servian is calling for a special investigation into why many city officials weren’t informed of a raw sewage spill into Hudson Bayou thirteen months ago.
The incident only came to light following another spill six weeks ago… in which 500,000 gallons of raw sewage flowed into Hudson Bayou. Servian says the public works officials who decided not to inform the city manager—and others—about last year’s spill made a bad judgement call.

“What is most disturbing is that it was a holiday weekend and the bayou has a lot of recreational boaters and swimmers and no one was notified that 300 hundred thousand gallons of raw sewage was dumped into the bayou. The potential is for a health crisis – I mean who knows with that high level of fecal matter in the water anyone could be exposed to really serious diseases.”

Servian wants an outside firm to conduct the investigation into Sarasota’s waste water treatment facilities. She’s also calling for a thorough inspection of the lift station involved in both spills.
That station handles two thirds of the city’s sewage. Meanwhile, officials say water quality in Hudson Bayou is back to normal.