Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/277189
March 10, meeting on Lift Station 87. If condi- tions get to "surcharge," what happens next? As was determined in Phase One, the original — and failed — design ran too shallow — and not just a little bit. It was 8 feet too shallow. The entire design — some of it already built to the wrong specifications — needed rethink- ing. What can be saved, if anything? SURCHARGE OR NOT? The wet well is already built. The inlet pipe is not, because a hole needs to be drilled under Hudson Bayou to make the connection. But now the hole must be 8 feet lower, meaning the "wet well" will have less volume before it fills over the top of the inlet pipe — sur- charge. In hurricane conditions, surcharge is inevitable. But now it looks like surcharge could be the normal condition. That leads to an expensive question: Should the wet well go deeper? Blake Peters is McKim & Creed's "task manager" for the grav- ity sewer portion of the project. If the wet well is left alone — hurricane or not — it will operate in a "surcharge condition," he said. Garland put the issue bluntly: "It is not indus- try standard to build a new lift station with surcharge conditions." "This is a brand new lift station that needs to operate perfectly," said Topovski. "We know we have to drop the floor [of the "wet well"]. But the question is, can you live with the surcharge at a peak hourly flow?" The lift station site had an abandoned appearance in October 2013. Photo by Norman Schimmel Sarasota News Leader March 14, 2014 Page 48