Category: Service Outages

All Water and Sewer Service Systems Are Now Active for Brunswick and St. Simons Island

For the few remaining pumping stations that are not yet online, work is underway now at a rapid pace. These stations are in limited use and at very limited risk of contributing to overflows. We are confident that the remaining work can be managed over the next forty-eight hours and will continue to monitor all stations to ensure that we have accommodated the excess demand presented by the storm surge and ground water intrusion.

As such, the sanitary sewer overflows were widespread but contained very dilute and minimal human waste. Testing at our state-certified lab at our treatment plants indicate that the waste flowing to the plants contained more than three to four times the level of ground water and sea water normally expected, giving us confidence that the waste viewed coming out of manholes will be unharmful having now been exposed to sunlight. Also, coming rainwater will drain residue to the storm system. If locations are found where conditions are different than those described, we will address those concerns on a case-by-case basis in an expedient manner.

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Our emergency updates are independent from the CodeRED system used by Glynn County. As we only have 709 subscribers in this new service at the moment, this system would have been ineffective for this event. Please subscribe now and help this become a more viable solution in the future.

Thanks again for your patience and understanding.

Jay Sellers, Public Information Officer

Due to the significant power losses sustained in the area from Hurricane Irma, all customers of the Brunswick-Glynn County Joint Water & Sewer Commission continue to be under a strict water & sewer service conservation plan. Georgia Power has been diligently working to restore electricity to residences, businesses and critical infrastructure yet our wastewater collection system is still without power at 75% of our pumping stations.

The following measures must be followed by all citizens to preserve the integrity of our systems, promote public health, ensure protection of the environment, and guarantee that available water and sewer capacity can meet the needs of the residents that did not evacuate and our present first responders:

• No showers or baths should be taken.
• Toilets should not be flushed if at all possible.
• Sink use should be extremely limited.
• Do not run dish washer or washing machines.

You may find that you have water pressure now but that pressure may be intermittent or go away completely due to the lack of available water in the distribution system. If any water is drained from the hot water tank, please turn off the breaker that supplies power in case power is restored before water service has been.

This water conservation policy shall apply for the next 48 hours, from noon on Wednesday, September 13, 2017 until noon on Friday, September 15, 2017, or until further notice has been posted on the BGJWSC website.

The staff and management of the BGJWSC understand the hardship this places upon you and your family but we must all work together to make sure that the entire community can be restored to normalcy as quickly as possible.

Due to the significant power losses sustained in the area from Hurricane Irma, all customers of the Brunswick-Glynn County Joint Water & Sewer Commission are now under a strict water & sewer service conservation plan. Estimates by Georgia Power place restoration of electrical services to begin no sooner than tomorrow morning, Tuesday, September 12, 2017. The following measures must be followed by all citizens to preserve the integrity of our systems, promote public health, ensure protection of the environment, and guarantee that available water and sewer capacity can meet the needs of the residents that did not evacuate and our present first responders:

• No showers or baths should be taken.
• Toilets should not be flushed if at all possible.
• Sink use should be extremely limited.
• Do not run dish washer or washing machines.

You may find that you have water pressure now but that pressure may be intermittent or go away completely due to the lack of available water in the distribution system. If any water is drained from the hot water tank, please turn off the breaker that supplies power in case power is restored before water service has been.

This water conservation policy shall apply for the next 48 hours, from noon on Monday, September 11, 2017 until noon on Wednesday, September 13, 2017, or until further notice has been posted on the BGJWSC website.

The staff and management of the BGJWSC understand the hardship this places upon you and your family but we must all work together to make sure that the entire community can be restored to normalcy as quickly as possible.

Due to the latest report from the National Weather Service, the BGJWSC has determined that the best course of action is to NOT turn off water and sewer services on St. Simons Island. The major determining factor for instituting cutoff procedures was the imminent threat of sustained tropical storm force winds. Though gusts may reach 60 mph, we expect winds to be within range of being able to adequately respond to any service outages.

However, we do anticipate possible isolated to widespread power outages that will affect services across Glynn County. We thank you in advance for your patience as our crews work diligently to restore services.

Please be safe throughout the inclement weather and continue to seek shelter until the skies clear.

Outage maps for our area are available via Glynn County EMA’s Emergency Management Dashboard.

Posted 3:48 PM Sunday, September 10, 2017

The following update is being provided as of 1:54 PM Sunday, September 10, 2017 to help provide an understanding of what decisions are being made for the health and safety of those in the community served by the Brunswick-Glynn County Joint Water and Sewer Commission.

History

Many have indirectly communicated that they don’t understand the decisions made in setting the service emergency response plans up. First, let me revisit the events that occurred during Hurricane Mathew. The original planning last year included the shutdown of water and sewer assets to protect the equipment and water assets in the best manner possible by de-energizing electrical systems and shutting off full tanks off from the lines that feed them. This was not an original plan but rather an approach one which has been developed by other utilities in the past and is still in use by a number of utilities including the JEA, our neighbor to the south of us that serves the Jacksonville, Florida area.

This plan was discussed with the community partners with the Emergency Operations Center executive team prior to Hurricane Matthew. At that time, it was deemed to be not doable due to various agency and community entities who were not able to make the needed adjustments in time for the hurricane situation which had arisen. Based on a community concurrence to provide financial support for any damages which resulted, the BGJWSC left all water and sewer equipment and assets on line and running during the storm.

This resulted in several issues which created greater problems after the fact. Among those problems was various electrical controls and pump motors being damaged by lightning strikes. Due to the sewage pump stations being left to start up when power returned, some pump stations started pumping sewage before the downstream pump stations had regained power or had been repaired after the lightning strike damages. This in turn, caused sewage to be pumped into full lines which then backed up into homes and spilled out into the environment and streets creating human health threats in those locations.

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Due to confusion over service availability and certain critical changes which have been made to the plan for water and sewer service throughout the Hurricane Irma storm event, BGJWSC is providing the following information regarding service availability:

Water service will not be interrupted on the mainland. Water service will be maintained on the mainland unless water lines or assets are damaged by storm effects to such a degree that water service can’t be maintained. Water pump stations are served by backup power generators to overcome loss of power from Georgia Power if and when that occurs.

Sewer service to the mainland will not be interrupted. However, some master assets will be taken out of service at 2:00 P.M. Sunday, September 10. System static capacity is sufficient to serve the remaining occupants who have to stay beyond the mandatory evacuation of Glynn County and the City of Brunswick. All master assets will be returned to service as soon as the storm has passed and permanent power is re-established.

Water service will be terminated on St. Simons Island at 2:00 P.M. Sunday, September 10 to facilitate a systematic or controlled shutdown of assets prior to Hurricane Irma’s impact on the island late that evening. This is to prevent damage or other system issues and to facilitate quick recovery once the storm has passed.

Sewer service will also be terminated on St. Simons Island at 2:00 P.M. Sunday, September 10. During the Hurricane Matthew event, several assets were left running and were damaged as a result. Due to this damage, their return to service went beyond power being re-established. In addition, numerous releases of sanitary sewage were experienced due to the lack of controlled restart of sewer assets. This again delayed entry into the area and caused potential exposure for those on the island to pathogens found in sewage.

Water and sewer systems will be restored on St. Simons Island as soon as the storm passes and permanent power is re-established provided that assets have not been damaged by storm effects.

With these efforts, our intent is to provide the quickest return of full service following the storm.

The BGJWSC thanks all our citizens for their patience and understanding.