PALM BAY, Fla. -- Continued pollution from storm runoff and increasing algae blooms are turning Brevard Counties Rivers, creeks and lagoons brown.

  • Raw sewage flows into creek
  • Flow was minimal, said Palm Bay Utility Officials

Last week, hundreds of gallons of raw sewage found its way into Turkey Creek only compounding the problem.

Just before 8 a.m. on July 5th, lift station 47 in Palm Bay had a malfunction. The converter box failed and caused about 700 gallons of raw sewage to overflow into Turkey Creek.

When crews arrived a couple of hours later, they were able to fix the problem quickly and stopping the leak almost immediately.

As Clyde Armand explains, he’s lived on the water for almost seven years and with each passing year the water turns murkier.

While Armand says he didn’t notice any funk in the air, his girlfriend on the other hand did catch a whiff.

''She thought she smelt sewage a couple of times lately,'' smiles Armand.

Even though hundreds of gallons spilled, Palm Bay Utilities Officials say it could have been much worse because during the morning hours of the day, flow is minimal.

Florida Department of Environmental Protection confirmed that  Palm Bay officials performed testing both upstream and downstream for three days  after the spill and provided those results to the Department.

''We got some response back and they viewed it as minimal according to the EPA,'' explains Palm Bay Utilities Director, Edward Fontanin.

Fontanin tells Spectrum News 13, their facility has an in house lab to do the water testing so it’s not going to cost taxpayers anything.