Crews respond to sewer main break in Palm Harbor

Pinellas County says it will remediate all private property impacted by today's spill of hundreds of thousands of gallons of raw sewage.

A sewage main ruptured in Palm Harbor near Alderman and Omaha. For several hours, 1,000 gallons of raw sewage rushed through the neighborhood's backyards.

Most of the sewage was captured by a retention pond. The county said it was able to plug the line at around 6 p.m, but they were still working on a permanent solution.

"The impact is minimal to the wildlife," said Jim Dulaney of the Pinellas County Dept. of Utilities. "We have such dilution with these storage ponds. They are millions and millions of gallons. We are not anticipating any impact."

The county notified the DEP and EPA, and said they don't believe any drinking water was impacted.

They're asking anyone who has a backyard with sewage in it to contact the county utilities department so they can arrange for remediation. That number is 727-464-4000.

They're also asking residents to minimize water consumption until a permanent fix is made. Updates will also be posted online at the Pinellas County website.