A broken pipe at an Orange County wastewater facility next to the Aquatica water park spilled nearly 350,000 gallons of sewage into the open last week.
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Orange County mayoral candidate Chris Messina on Thursday held a news conference at the site and blasted the county for its response, saying it lacked transparency given the potential impact to public health and the environment.
“I would think that in an administration that’s committed to transparency and publicity that they would be here week and a half ago telling you, ‘Hey, there’s been a break here,’” Messina said. “Is the process to not inform the press and the public and the adjoining businesses? We have a major tourist attraction right here.”
County spokespersons said 342,000 gallons of sewage were spilled on two separate incidents on Sept. 6 and Sept. 10 at the wastewater facility, which is directly adjacent to Aquatica’s parking lot. The area is near the proposed location of a major league baseball stadium for the as-yet-unfulfilled Orlando Dreamers project.
County spokespersons said the spill was contained and redirected into the sewage system after over 100 trucks from around the state rseponded to the scene. They also said that no surface water was contaminated, including nearby areas that drained into Shingle Creek, the headwaters of the Florida Everglades.
The pipe was repaired and back in service as of Wednesday and the incident was immediately reported to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The county did not say what led to the two breakages.
The county is also working with SeaWorld Orlando, which owns Aquatica. A SeaWorld spokesperson said Aquatica wasn’t impacted by the spill.
At his Thursday news conference, wearing his waterproof work boots, Messina cast doubt on the county’s claims that no surface water was contaminated.
“How would they know that? What testing did they do?” before gesturing to the apparent wastewater on the ground around him. “It was three times as deep yesterday.”
The area around the facility still reeked of the smell of sewage during the news conference. A crew using an excavator pumped what appeared to be wastewater from a large hole in the ground and out across the grass.
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Messina, a Republican entrepreneur, will face Orange County Clerk of Court Tiffany Moore Russell, a Democrat, in an officially nonpartisan runoff to succeed Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings. He said Thursday he’d make transparency a priority if elected.
“We need a government that’s transparent to the people about situations like this that impact public safety that impact the health and well-being and impact our environment,” he said.
Orange County issued information about the incident Thursday morning after receiving inquiries from media outlets — more than a week after the first spill and one day after Messina began calling attention to the issue on social media.
Messina had posted video of the broken pipe spewing out sewage to Facebook on Wednesday after being tipped off to the spillage by workers who helped clean up the scene. He said he personally responded to the scene that day as it was being cleaned up and that the water was 2 to 3 inches over his boots.
When asked if they had provided any notice to the public or media before Thursday, county spokespersons said the county “follows all regulations and issues notifications that are required” and that it notified the appropriate state agencies.
The county gave the same statement when asked about Messina’s criticisms on its transparency.
Messina said he spoke to one contractor at the scene Wednesday who told him he estimated more than 342,000 gallons of sewage had been spilled, although he didn’t identify the contractor, who was not present and preferred to remain anonymous.
He said over 100 work trucks responded to the scene from as far away as Lake County.
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