A break in a main sewer pipeline along Maclay Road spewed out roughly 230,000 gallons of sewage.

City crews were performing a routine inspection Thursday morning when they found the busted pipe, according to a Florida Department of Environmental Protection notice of pollution.

“Staff immediately shut down the station, stopping the overflow,” the notice says. “Crews repaired the force main and placed it back in service.”

Of the 230,000 gallons, only 2,500 gallons were recovered. Impacted soils have been cleaned, disinfected and deodorized, and, “in an abundance of caution,” water quality samples have been collected for testing, according to the notice.

Thursday’s spill is joining a long string of ruptures in the history of Tallahassee’s sewage system. In April, the city reported nearly a dozen spills following a powerful storm system that flooded much of the capital city and county.

The volume spilled during the storms remains unknown.

At the beginning of the year, the city of Tallahassee received an $18,000 fine after substantial amounts of sewage spilled into the streets between July 1, 2023, and Dec. 1, 2023, according to a letter to the city from the state. According to previous reporting, this was the second fine the DEP issued the city for spills last year, totaling almost $45,000 in fines.

Most notably, an October 2023 incident spilled roughly 970,000 gallons of sewage into the lanes of Capital Circle Northeast between Automotive Way and Mahan Drive. The Tallahassee Democrat previously reported that this was the largest spill since June 2016, when 1 million gallons spilled during a power outage.

In 2011, the city entered into a consent order with DEP, which included penalties for “untimely corrective action” when sanitary sewers overflow.

The voluntary agreement supervised by a court came after an increase in unauthorized spills from the wastewater system in 2007, 2008 and 2009. It requires the city to continually analyze the system, make repairs and take other action to improve the system’s function.

Breaking & trending news reporter Elena Barrera can be reached at ebarrera@tallahassee.com. Follow her on X: @elenabarreraaa.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Busted pipeline spews 230,000 gallons of sewage in Tallahassee