JEFFERSON CITY, MO, APRIL 20, 2010 – At 4:45 p.m. today, the city of Kansas City reported a broken sewer pipe at 5220 N. Troost resulting in an estimated overflow of 5 to 10 gallons per minute of untreated wastewater. The overflow is entering a tributary to Rock Creek. The city is taking samples and estimates the problem will be fixed by Wednesday morning.
Clean water regulations require the city to submit a report detailing the release to the department within five days. The department will base future enforcement action on the city’s report.
The department considers discharges of wastewater from sanitary sewer collection systems to be potential threats to public health and the environment. Such discharges can contaminate lakes and streams, causing serious water quality problems.
Sanitary sewer overflows can be caused by obstructions in sewer lines, such as in this case, mechanical failure, infiltration of rainwater and snow melt into aging systems or undersized systems that cannot compensation for sudden increases in wastewater.
Communities across Missouri produce millions of gallons of wastewater that must be properly transported and treated before being released to waterways. However, some communities are facing challenges in accomplishing this.
In order to protect public health and the environment, the department requires communities to take appropriate action to eliminate their sanitary sewer overflow issues. To do this, communities should develop a system to track information about such incidents, including the date, time, location and size of the overflow, weather data, who notified them, when they notified the department and the measures taken to respond. The community can then use this data to aid in developing a plan to inspect the collection system, and plan and finance system upgrades.
For more information on sanitary sewer overflows or other water quality issues, contact the Department of Natural Resources’ Water Protection Program at 573-751-1300 or 800-361-4827 or visit the department Web site at www.dnr.mo.gov/env/wpp.
To report an environmental emergency, including sewage overflows, please contact the DNR spill line at 573-634-2436. For more information contact the department at 800-361-4827 or 573-751-3443, or visit the department's Web page at dnr.mo.gov
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1 comment:
Thank you Mike for your vigilance on this issue. Very handy numbers and email addresses for all of us in this highly susceptible community of ours. Since our elected leaders don't give a sh.. about us being sh.. on we need to take matters into our own hands.
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