12.03.08
Wednesday Headlines: Two Million Gallon Sewage Spill in Delaware
A two million gallon sewage spill in Delaware has closed the Mispillion River from Milford to the Delaware Bay. A major sewer line along state Route 1 north of Milford broke, causing the discharge. The State Water Resources Director county sewage system managers had no choice but to divert sewage into the river. Two food processing plants halted production to help curb the discharge.
Headlines
As part of a pilot program aimed at reducing sewer blockages and overflows and accidental spills, the Raleigh suburb of Cary, North Carolina is encouraging residents to save their cooking oils, fats and grease in sealable containers. According to the town, such refuse contributed to 16 sewer overflows in 2006 and six overflows in 2007.
A water main break this morning flooded an intersection in southeast Rochester, New York. City crews are working in the area today, and dug a large hole to work on the water main.
Two northbound lanes of 50th Street in Tampa, Florida are closed while the city’s Water Department repairs a broken 24-inch water main. Restoration of the road surface is expected to be completed by the end of the week.
A local fitness facility in Norton Shores, Michigan may reopen today after being closed due to a water main break.
Sewer Rate News
Carlsbad, California
Frisco, Texas
Marietta, Ohio
Muncie, Indiana
12.02.08
Tuesday Headlines: Water Main Break Causes Power Outage in Flint, Michigan
More than 1,500 customers in Genesee County, Michigan were still without power Monday afternoon after water main break in downtown Flint. The water main break also shut down a road and closed some businesses. Cold weather is being blamed for the break.
Headlines
In Kentucky, Jeffersonville Mayor Tom Galligan took control of the city’s sewer system yesterday, dismissing the private contractor that had been running it since 1994. Approximately 10 more workers will be added to improve cleaning and maintenance of sewer lines and boost the system’s performance.
The Valdosta, Georgia area suffered two wastewater spills over the weekend resulting from heavy rainfall. Approximately 6.5 million gallons of untreated wastewater was released in the first incident, and a discharge of approximately 135,000 gallons of raw sewage was released in the second incident.
Because of a sewage spill, people are being encouraged to temporarily stay away from a ravine in Thousand Oaks, California. A root blockage in a sewer line led to the release of about 2,100 gallons of sewage from a manhole cover.
Tucson Water workers expect to fix a University of Arizona area water main break some time Tuesday. The break in in the 8-inch water main has disrupted traffic but should be repaired today.
Sewer Rate News
Birdsboro, Pennsylvania
Northport, Alabama
Westminster, Maryland
12.01.08
Monday Headlines: City of San Francisco Begins Payouts for Sewage Damage
Nearly five years after San Francisco experienced a storm that overwhelmed its aging sewer system, the city is beginning to pay out millions of dollars in settlements to businesses and homeowners. Businesses affected by the overflow will receive $612,000 from the city of San Francisco. The businesses were inundated by raw sewage in 2004, when stormwater caused it to overflow.
The story from the The San Francisco Examiner goes into further detail.
More than 1,000 miles of brick sewers, many built more than a century ago, carry flushed waste from bathrooms and sinks beneath the surface to treatment plants. The sewers also fill with stormwater during rainstorms, which can overwhelm the system and cause it to overflow.
A San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled earlier this year that The City is liable for property damage caused by the toxic sewage that brimmed out of the combined system in 2004.
11.25.08
Tuesday Headlines: Tulsa on Pace for Sewage Spill Record
This year three sewage spills in Tulsa County, Oklahoma has accounted for about half of the 53 million gallons leaked this year and has put the county on pace to record its largest amount of spilled sewage since the state has tracked unpermitted discharges. During those three incidents, an estimated 25 million spilled from sanitary sewer systems in Tulsa County.
Headlines
For the second time in November, work crews in eastern North Carolina are cleaning up a sewage spill after 60,000 gallons spilled on Monday. Only 10,000 gallons of sewage contacted state waters—which occured when the sewage flowed into some roadside ditches.
A pump station failure has caused a large discharge of raw sewage in Waldorf, Maryland. Officials estimate that over 10,000 gallons of raw sewage spilled into a stream near the pumping station, and they are advising the public to avoid contact with the water in that stream.
In Del Mar, California, an area around the San Dieguito River outlet is unsafe for recreation after a 8,090-gallon sewage spill Monday.
Gravel and debris combined to block a portion of Cary North Carolina’s sanitary sewer system resulting in a spill discovered on Sunday. An estimated 3,499 gallons of untreated waste escaped from a manhole and reached an unknown tributary of Crabtree Creek.
Sewer Rate News
Dubuque, Iowa
Lacey Township, New Jersey
Leominster, Massachusetts
Salem, Oregon
That’s it until Monday. Have a happy Thanksgiving.
11.24.08
Monday Headlines: Chesapeake Bay Cleanup to Cost Pennsylvania $1.4 Bil.
Upgrading sewer treatment systems to meet Chesapeake Bay cleanup mandates will cost Pennsylvania municipalities an estimated $1.4 billion, according to a new state legislative study. The study by the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee was authorized by the state Senate to find out how much the Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy will cost to implement.
Headlines
Warning signs were posted Sunday after thousands of gallons of sewage spilled out of manholes in several areas across Honolulu. This weekend’s heavy rains are being blamed for the overflows.
Havelock, North Carolina experienced a spill of untreated wastewater of estimated 60,000 gallons today, an estimated 10,000 of which reached State waters.
About 600 gallons of raw sewage spilled Friday onto a seaside road about a quarter-mile south of Hobson County Park in Ventura, California.
A home in Lancaster, Kentucky may be a total loss after a sewage backup ruined the basement and part of the front lawn. A sewer pipe that serves about 40 homes in the area had blockage in it caused by rags that may have been caught in a crack in the pipe.
A water main break in Waynesboro, Virginia created a small sinkhole and forced an elementary school to shut down Monday.
Sewer Rate News
Benton Harbor, Michigan
Delaware, Ohio
11.21.08
Friday Headlines: Town in Maine Looks to Repair Water Main Under I-95
Looking to repair a water main break under Interstate 95, the Board of Selectmen in Seabrook, Maine are considering replacing the main using directional drilling technology to pull a new pipe through a bore hole. The 12-inch, 350-foot water main remains shut off after it broke in two places in November 2007 and the cost of repair is estimated at $235,700.
Headlines
Town officials in Meyersdale, Pennsylvania are busily trying to figure out how to pay for $1.4 million in state mandated sewer work. The sewer work includes dredging sludge out of lagoons at the treatment plant, correcting combined sewer overflow problems and installing flow meters.
Customers of the Grand Rapids, Michigan water and sewer systems will face big rate increases next year, thanks to expansive upgrades and the defection of five suburbs from its sewer system. The average city resident will get a quarterly water and sewer bill of $168.10, an 8.2 percent jump over this year.
A broken water main in Chester, Vermont left some residents without water last night and forced the closure of a local high school for today.
For more than a week, the left lane of a key San Francisco artery has been closed by orange cones and sawhorses. The sinkhole, formed because of a broken sewer main, needs major repair. and patching the hole is in advisable because the hole might return and cause serious damage to a vehicle.
Sewer Rate News
Arkadelphia, Arkansas
Coldwater, Michigan
El Dorado, Arkansas
Sayre Borough, Pennsylvania
11.20.08
Thursday Headlines: Editorial Addresses Infrastructure in Economic Stimulus
An editorial in today’s Arizona Daily Star addresses the need for an economic stimulus package that includes investment in infrastructure. Although the editorial focuses on the need to put people back to work by addressing the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, it does specifically address the dire state of America’s wastewater systems.
Consider, for instance, the nationwide problem of sewage overflows. Many older cities have combined sewer-stormwater systems that overflow during big storms, dumping untreated waste into rivers and drinking-water reservoirs.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, at least $202 billion is needed to prevent sewer overflows at some 16,000 wastewater treatment plants across the country. While Congress can’t invest that kind of money immediately, it could make a down payment on a health threat that grows bigger every year.
11.19.08
Wednesday Headlines: 60-inch Water Main Breaks in Central New Jersey
In New Jersey, a break in a 60-inch water main break in Middlesex and Somerset Counties is affecting 100,000 customers and has partially collapsed part of the road above the pipe. A boil-water advisory remains in effect for the nearly 20 Central Jersey towns affected, and customers will be contacted by phone when it is lifted, which is projected to be around noon Thursday. Although the cause of the break is unknown the water main was installed in 1958.
Sewer Rate News
Lansing, Michigan’s long-term endeavor to reduce the flow of raw sewage is 59 percent completed and already seeing significant results. Annually, some 1.65 billion gallons of sewage went into the rivers before the CSO work started. That has been reduced by 585 million gallons a year. The work is not slated to end until 2020.
Astoria, Oregon under a federal consent decree, has a 20-year program to prevent sewage from overflowing into the Columbia River and Youngs Bay during heavy rainstorms. The latest project is the first phase of a two-phase CSO project, which will install new pipes to carry stormwater into the bay and construct a giant storage tank for sewage.
Traffic was restricted on a major Mesa, Arizona roadway Tuesday evening after a 12-inch water main leak caused a sinkhole in the road.
Work crews in Kalamazoo, Michigan worked through the night to dig out a couple of water main breaks. There are water main breaks all the time in this city, which is an older system where fluctuating temperatures (a common occurence this time of year) makes the ground heave and pipes burst.
Sewer Rate News
McKinleyville, California
Ranson, West Virginia
Sugarcreek, Ohio
11.18.08
Tuesday Headlines: Kansas City Moves Forward on Sewer Overflow Plan
After months of delays, Kansas City’s largest publicly financed project, an effort to improve its sewer system, moves forward this week. Yesterday city officials announced the latest version of a $2.4 billion plan to reduce sewer overflows into local streams during heavy rains–improvements that are required by the federal government.
Headlines
It’s called the Big Pipe project, and when it is completed in 2011 it is expected to reduce Portland, Oregon’s sewer overflows to three or four a year instead of every time it rains. The 20-year project will cost $1.4 billion and has been financed with sewer rate increases in recent years. It is the biggest construction project in the city’s history.
A water main break in Kalamazoo, Michigan has closed two schools for the day.
The University of Maryland experienced its second water main break in as many days after a 16-inch main broke near a campus parking lot. Age is believed to be the biggest factor in causing the break.
Basements of about approximately a half-dozen homes in Bellevue, Washington were flooded when a water main broke Monday morning.
Sewer Rate News
Ontario, California
Sandy Township, Pennsylvania
Waterford, Connecticut
11.17.08
Monday Headlines: Water Main Break Leads to Boil Alert in Suburban DC
Although service has been restored following a water main break on Saturday in Largo, Maryland, residents remain under a boil water advisory. The break also affected traffic for fans traveling to the game last night between the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins. The advisory involves homes in a 39-square-mile area in central Prince George’s County, as well as several schools and and government buildings.
Headlines
An above-ground pipe spewed at least 100,000 gallons of raw sewage Saturday in Vista, California. The sewage spilled near the on-ramp of state Route 78 on Saturday. The age of the pipe is believed to be the cause of the spill.
In Maui, Cove Park was closed on Thursday after a blockage at a wastewater pump station Thursday led to an overflow of about 1,200 gallons of untreated sewage from a manhole cover.
A water main break slowed traffic this morning on a state highway outside of Scranton, Pennsylvania in Dickson City.
Schools are closed in Beacon Falls, Connecticut today because of a water main break.
Crash investigators in Kansas City, Missouri said a water main break may have caused an accident on Interstate 35 Sunday morning. Police said water from the break froze over the highway and a car and truck slid into each other on the slippery surface.
In the ongoing situation with Jefferson County, Alabama and its sewer debt, a federal judge will hold a hearing Monday morning to determine whether bond insurers are entitled to have Jefferson County’s troubled sewer system placed under the control of a receiver who can manage the sewer system. The county is in danger of defaulting on it $3.2 billion sewer debt.
Sewer Rate News
Burlington, New Jersey
Williams, Oregon
