FIRST ON 3: CFPUA has another sewer line overflow; 700 gallons of sewage into Smith Creek

Wastewater Spill in NEW HANOVER COUNTY

This news release was issued on June 16, 2010 in compliance with North Carolina General Statute 143-215.1C (a portion of the Clean Water Act of 1999). For further information, contact the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority at 910-332-6704.

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority Operations crews were on site and resolved a sewer system overflow (SSO) that occurred at Pump Station #89, Smith Creek Pump Station, located on N. Kerr Ave. in the proximity of Grathwol Drive in Wilmington, NC. The SSO occurred this morning, Wednesday June 16 at 2:31 AM. Crews stopped the overflow at 2:41 AM. Duration of the actual overflow was 10 minutes. The total amount spilled was calculated to be approximately 5176 gallons of which approximately 700 gallons reached Smith Creek.

The overflow occurred as a result of complications during cleaning operations. Pump station cleaning operations at the station were made necessary by an extremely heavy accumulation of sand, silt, roots, tree parts, etc. This cleaning required the temporary shutting down of the pump station and bypass pumping. Once cleaning halted and pumps at the station and bypass operation were restarted, there was a brief period where the pumping capacity of the bypass pumps exceeded the pumping capacity of the pump station causing the overflow.

CFPUA Environment and Safety Management has and will continue to perform water quality monitoring to determine the impact of the spill.

NC DWQ has been notified of this incident.

INFORMATION FROM A NEWS RELEASE SENT TO THE WWAY NEWSCHANNEL 3 NEWSROOM….