Miami Canal Flooded With Turd Water From Contractor-Involved Pipe Break

Over the February 25 weekend, a private contractor allegedly struck a 24-inch sewer main in Hialeah Gardens, causing the area to be flooded with liquefied human feces, urine, household chemicals, and whatever else is going down the drain these days.

An estimated 777,000 gallons of wastewater leaked from the pipe break last Saturday near the Miami Canal along U.S. 27, less than 500 feet from Hialeah Gardens High School.

“This resulted in wastewater entering the canal near the spill site of 11701 W. Okeechobee Road,” Miami-Dade County Water & Sewer Department spokesperson Jennifer Messemer-Skold tells New Times.

County workers responded to the break and sealed off the ductile iron pipe, which was severely damaged by the contractor, Prince Construction, according to a county report. The pipe was leaking out raw sewage for two hours before the flow was stopped.  

The break triggered an advisory to avoid contact with the canal water for an 8.5-mile stretch from Hialeah Gardens extending east past Miami Springs and into the canal space near Miami Regional University. Signs were placed on the canal banks to warn people to steer clear of the tainted water.

Messemer-Skold says that the county extended the initial boundary of the no-contact advisory as a safety precaution.

“Staff from the Miami-Dade County Regulatory and Economic Resources Department are sampling the canal and once there are two consecutive days of compliant results, the advisory will be lifted, and the signage will be removed,” says Messemer-Skold.

The Olympic-pool-sized spill sent contaminants downstream through the canal, which empties into the Miami River downtown. The leak equates to more than a half-million toilet flushes, assuming the average toilet flush is 1.5 gallons.

It's one of the worst contractor-involved sewage leaks in Miami-Dade County in recent years. In a county report documenting contractor-involved leaks from January 2021 to March 2022, the biggest spill was less than half the size of this one.

"Contractors are supposed to be mapping out underground utility lines before they dig. Unfortunately, these contractor-caused sewer breaks have been happening more often than not," Messemer-Skold says.

Under a resolution adopted in September 2022, Miami-Dade kicked off an accountability project pursuant to which the county releases six-month reports on damage to public sewer pipes caused by private contractors.

Last November, New Times chronicled a series of incidents involving botched drilling operations, excavation projects gone wrong, and other underground construction work that ended with sewage pouring into streets or waterways.

Heavy sewage leaks can have a grave environmental impact, contaminating groundwater and polluting waterways with nutrients. Chronic or large-scale leaks have been blamed for algal blooms and fish and seagrass die-offs around Biscayne Bay.