FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. – The city of Palm Coast on Thursday asked residents to reduce their water usage because unexpected rain poses the threat of a backup in local wastewater plants, according to a news release.
The wastewater treatment facility took on over six million gallons of water in a single day. That’s equivalent to 10 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water.
The city currently has several wastewater treatment plant improvement projects to hopefully alleviate issues in the future.
“We had a lot of rain so our swales were inundated and a lot of flow’s from the ground water table,” said Danny Ashburn, the city’s Wastewater Treatment manager.
Of the 165 pump stations in Palm Coast, 23 of them are nearing capacity, which can lead to an overflow. The release asks all of Palm Coast to limit water usage, especially in areas south of Palm Coast Parkway.
Along with limiting water usage, the city has 11 pumper trucks working around the clock to pump out lift stations and prevent a backup. In the case of a power outage, the pumper trucks will not be able to function. The city asks that residents reduce their water usage as much as possible if a power outage occurs, the release states.
Ashburn told News 6 the city got seven to ten inches of rain over the last week, forcing them to ask residents to stop using non-essential water.
“Our flows jumped up really high, so we had to make some adjustments. One thing we’ve done is we work 24 hours a day (...) I had guys here all night making adjustments to the plant,” he said.
To hopefully alleviate some of that pain in the future, the city is working on major infrastructure improvements to its wastewater plants, increasing the amount the tanks can take on.
“We have some improvements going at plant one. Over at our second wastewater plant we have a construction project where we’re doubling the size of our capacity,” he said. “It doesn’t take a whole lot of disturbance in the swales either upstream or downstream to cause a system problem but that’s what these guys are going to be working on is to make sure they keep up with that.”
As the situation unfolds, the city of Palm Coast will continue to provide updates. If you experience an issue, the city recommends reporting it through Palm Coast Connect.
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