Wastewater spills into Sunset Park tributary

    Untreated wastewater spilled into a tributary of Crooked Creek in Washington for about 40 minutes early Monday morning. The spill occurred near the dog park in Sunset Park. Jason Whisler, a wastewater treatment plant operator, said he got a call at 6:42 a.m. Monday from an automatic dialing device that alerts the plant operators of a problem. Upon investigation, Whisler discovered the spill was caused by a pump failure at the Sunset Park lift station, which was later repaired.

    Whisler said the pump failure was caused by rain the area received Monday. Whisler checked the tributary for any visible signs of solid waste and saw none. He said no formal tests were done on the tributary to determine the water quality. 

    ?Most of the untreated wastewater was groundwater,? he remarked. ?We still have some combined sewers in town, where the storm sewer goes into the sanitary sewer.?

    City Administrator Dave Plyman said the city has had issues with the Sunset Park lift station for years.

    ?This is not the first time we?ve experienced bypasses into creek,? said Plyman. ?Any time it rains a lot, we?re going to have bypasses. In fact, we?ve installed signs on the creek to notify anyone near it not to get into the water when it rains. The creek was inspected, and nothing was out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, the ordinary is not good.?

For the full story, see the July 20 edition of The Washington Evening Journal