BRADENTON, Fla. — Officials say that more than 3 million gallons of partially treated sewage spilled into the Manatee River following rains brought to the area by Debby.

Bradenton city officials say the bypass was necessary due to excess volume of rainwater going into the wastewater system after Debby.

It happened on Aug. 4, the city said on Friday, citing "elevated plant flows resulting from the unprecedented rainfall associated with Tropical Storm (Hurricane) Debby, which impacted numerous municipalities."

"This bypass was necessary due to the excessive volume of rainwater diluting our wastewater system, which was four times the daily average amount," the city said.

The city said it is repairing both collection and treatment equipment.

All along Riverside Drive East, you are surrounded by the beautiful Manatee River, but resident Darryl Libby says looks can be deceiving, especially after an event like Debby.

“That’s all we can smell is that sewage when we get storms and high tide comes in," he said. "My backyard floods, and all that water just sits there."

For Libby, this is nothing new. He has lived in the area for five years and says things have actually gotten worse.

“There used to be a manhole there that would take the excess water, and all of these roads they've been working on are getting buried, so the water has nowhere to go,” he said.

But it’s not just in front of his house — he said it's also in his back yard where his canal is.

“When high tide comes in, it will flood over this wall,” he said. “It’s constantly smelling, and the day of the hurricane, it was two days’ worth. It flooded my back yard, and that’s all you could smell.”

Libby said it has impacted his health.

“I’m 56. Never in my life have I ever had an earache, and all of a sudden, in the last two weeks, I got a massive earache,” he said.

He thought nothing of it until, he said, his symptoms got worse.

“It got so bad that I couldn't hear out of my ear anymore," he said. "I had to go to the hospital. They had to give me a prescription and drops for it. So now I'm finally starting to be able to hear out of it. My wife's been getting sick."

Libby said he would like the city to do something to mitigate the issue.