Sewage issues concern Polk County residents

Hundreds of thousands of gallons of wastewater have come up from Polk County’s sewage system so far this year, including about 12,000 gallons from two separate incidents Monday.

10News first told you Monday about a power outage at a lift station in Lakeland during Tropical Storm Emily. It resulted in 10,000 gallons of sewage spewing out of it and possibly making its way into a nearby creek.

We’ve since learned about another incident Monday. About 1,800 gallons of wastewater bubbled up from a manhole on Paddington Lane in north Lakeland. It might’ve ended up in a pond in the neighborhood. The county could not say whether the storm was to blame.

“I’m bummed that that happened,” Damaris Randolph, who lives there, said. “I had no idea.”

The county has reported at least three other incidents to the DEP this year, in which more than 250,000 gallons of sewage spilled. Jake Rohrich, the utilities operations and maintenance manager, insisted there’s no widespread issue with the county’s sewage system.