Longboat, DEP await final tests on sewage spill

Longboat Key’s consultant continued sampling and testing to determine the impact of a sewage spill in a mangrove forest along Sarasota Bay.

“Forensic evaluations into the cause and extent of the force main leak are ongoing,” the town stated in a news release Aug. 12.

The spill began June 17 and continued until June 30, when crews cleared a path through the mangroves on undeveloped land at Long Bar Pointe to repair Longboat Key’s wastewater pipe.

The pipe reaches underwater from the key to a county sewage treatment plant in Bradenton, but the break was on land in Bradenton.

Early reports from the town estimated 26 million gallons of raw sewage spilled from the pipeline, but the state has reduced the estimate to 17 million gallons, according to U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key.