Zephyrhills engineers, staff and residents press for fast fixes after persistent sewer gas and odors at Waters Edge

A wave of sewer‑gas complaints from Waters Edge RV Park residents dominated the Zephyrhills City Council meeting on Monday, forcing staff and engineers to lay out short‑term and long‑range fixes.

Residents described persistent hydrogen‑sulfide odors, bubbles in sinks and showers, and two episodes where manholes reportedly overflowed. "The water literally fills up the shower pan and then it bubbles up before it finally goes down," said resident Penny Wickstrom, who said the smell has saturated furniture and walls in her home.

Jones Edmonds engineers summarized a months‑long investigation. Mike Clark, an engineer with Jones Edmonds, said the city installed caps on laterals and ran dye tests and pressure checks to identify the source. He told the council that pressure gauges at the affected cleanouts showed virtually no backpressure — "about 0.3 inches of water column" — far below the roughly 2 inches required to evacuate a P‑trap. That disparity, Clark said, means the route by which gas is entering dwellings remains unclear and requires further investigation.

Staff and the consultant proposed a two‑track response: a near‑term mitigation to reduce exterior odors and an engineering effort to find the gas source. Temporary rentals of active blower/scrubber units or chemical dosing were offered as immediate measures to reduce smells in the park; longer‑term options include installing active odor‑control hardware at Lift Station 37, placing inline gas relief valves in the collection pipeline, or rerouting the two affected laterals farther away from the wet well.

Utilities Director John Bosco told residents the city is pursuing both kinds of steps: "We can certainly loan the city our gate, set the sensitivity counter," and staff are arranging around‑the‑clock monitoring and further tests to capture night‑time conditions. Engineers said they simulated high‑flow conditions by manually cycling upstream stations to approximate peak pressures; residents pressed staff to run continuous 24‑hour monitors during evening hours when household flows are highest.

Council members repeatedly urged speed and a layered approach. "If it's renting that thing, if it's moving them, let's just do something," Councilman Lance Smith said, asking staff to balance trial‑and‑error mitigation with work toward a permanent solution.

Staff said they will pursue an odor‑control rental as a stopgap while finalizing the location and scope for a permanent active system and the dye‑test results that will show where to apply treatment. City staff also said cost estimates and a mitigation plan were being compiled and would be shared with affected residents.

The council did not make a formal vote on a capital expenditure at the meeting; staff said the next steps are to run overnight monitoring, finalize cost estimates for temporary and permanent odor control systems, and return with a mitigation timeline.

For now, staff asked residents to report any further manhole overflows with video and to contact city hall so crews can respond immediately.