Sewage spills plague county

Nearly every plant in Charles overflows due to heavy rain

Friday, May 16, 2008

The Charles County Department of Utilities reported that the treated effluent was in the last stages of ultraviolet light treatment when the overflow occurred at the Mattawoman wastewater treatment plant in Mason Springs, said Jason Lang, the county’s media relations spokesman, in a press release.

Rain in excess of eight inches in some locations in the service area on Sunday and Monday caused the large spill, he said.

The overflow did not contain any raw sewage, Lang said, adding that sewage treatment plants across the state experienced similar problems because of the heavy rainfall that inundated the area. County health officials have determined that the Mattawoman spill does not pose a hazard to human health because no raw sewage was discharged into the river, Lang said.

In addition to the Mattawoman treatment plant, several pump stations and a couple of community treatment plants reported overflows during the storm, Lang said. The volume of the spills had not yet been calculated Thursday, but he said that the combined overflows could be in excess of 10,000 gallons.

The facilities that reported raw sewage overflows are the Pinefield station on Pinefield Road in Waldorf, the Bryans Road station on Adelphi Lane, the Indian Head Manor station on Thomas Road and the Bel Alton wastewater treatment plant on Twinberry Drive, Lang said.

Because the wastewater from the pump stations and the Bel Alton facility was heavily diluted with rainwater, the spills do not pose a hazard to human health, but signs have been posted at the sites to warn residents to avoid those areas for the next several days, Lang said.

Rainwater from the storm also flooded Cliffton on the Potomac subdivision’s treatment plant in Newburg, causing treated effluent to spill into surrounding wooded areas near the plant, Lang said. The overflow did not contain raw sewage and does not pose a threat to human health, but as a precaution county health officials warn residents to avoid the woods and stream in the area surrounding the plant for the next couple of days.

La Plata’s wastewater treatment plant on Curley Hall Road off Route 225 spilled 800 gallons of raw sewage into the Port Tobacco River and nearby tributaries during the storm, said Town Manager Daniel Mears.

In addition, 200 gallons of raw sewage spilled from the Willow Lane pump station, Mears said, adding that town crews trucked sewage from the Willow Lane station to the treatment plant Sunday and Monday to help the overflow problem and to prevent clogging. The town also had overflows at the manholes on Centennial Street and on Willow Lane, Mears said. The amount of raw sewage that spilled from the manholes had not been calculated Thursday, he said.

The overflow at the town’s treatment plant is not a surprise, Mears said, because the plant’s capacity is 1.5 million gallons of water a day and the influx of rainwater into the system during a 24-hour period during the storm was more than 3 million gallons.

Mears said that signs have been posted in the areas along the Port Tobacco River and its tributaries where the spill occurred. In addition, the town posted yellow signs stating that there has been a sewage spill and the date that it occurred on Centennial Street and Willow Lane.

If anyone should come into contact with the water in the affected areas it is important to wash the area of the body that was exposed thoroughly, said Bill Leebel, Charles County Health Department spokesman.

‘‘The safest thing to do is to avoid exposure to the water if you have an open wound and if you are exposed to the water to wash the area off immediately after exposure,” he said Thursday.

Indian Head’s treatment plant sailed through the storm unscathed, according to David Elder, supervisor of the town’s water and sewer department.

The town has almost finished an estimated $13 million modification of its old sewer plant and construction of a new one, Elder said. Both plants were able to operate during the storm surge, preventing an overflow.

‘‘We did surprisingly well,” he said. ‘‘We couldn’t have had the storm at a better time because the plant was at the stage that we could take advantage of flow equalization and the extra tanks that were added.”

County and town officials are keeping a wary eye on the weather because at press time the National Weather Service was calling for a 90 percent chance of heavy rain last night and a 70 percent chance for rain today. A flood watch remains in effect through this morning.