Water-Related News

Polk County Utilities reports two wastewater spills. The first was a 376,000-gallon spill.

LAKELAND – Twice last week, Polk County Utilities filed reports to state regulators about spill incidents at the Southwest Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility in Mulberry.

The first was a 376,000-gallon spill of effluent to the ground. In the second incident, 8,415 gallons of sludge oozed from a manhole cover at the facility.

Both met the criteria for reporting the incidents to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, which had distributed the publicly available notices of pollution.

FDEP requires utilities to report spills of 1,000 gallons or larger.

The notice on Jan. 11 concerning the original spill stated, “An effluent reject storage tank overflowed at the facility resulting in a discharge of approximately 376,000 gallons onto the ground.”