Wastewater overflow reaches waterway tributary

Around 14,800 gallons of wastewater was released from a sewer pump station on Sunday (August 3rd) in New Hanover County, North Carolina, US. According to a release issued by the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority (CFPUA), the thousands of gallons of wastewater were able to reach an Intracoastal Waterway tributary.

The overflow occurred on Sunday morning at the Loader Pump Station in southern New Hanover County. It is thought that heavy rainfall experienced over the weekend across the region is the main cause behind the overflow. The CFPUA said that it does not look as though the wastewater release was triggered by a system failure at the pump station.

As the region experienced torrential rainfall over the weekend, "abnormally heavy flows" were being dealt with at the pump station. Although the pumps continued to operate as they should, they were unable to keep up with the amount of flow. The overflow stopped before 4pm (local time) on Sunday.

In order to ascertain whether there were any other factors that triggered or exacerbated the overflow, the CFPUA will conduct a below-ground investigation. It will make use of video cameras to explore the area underneath and around the pump station to rule out any other possible factors. 

Environmental management staff from the CFPUA also undertook water quality monitoring in the area affected by the overflow to measure any contamination. The incident was reported to the North Carolina Division of Water Quality. 

It is unclear what impact the wastewater that reached the waterway tributary will have at this time. However, the CFPUA said that wastewater can become very diluted during periods of heavy rainfall; this means the contamination may not be as bad as it may have been had heavy rainfall not been experienced.

Operations in the area have now resumed and the pump station is operating as normal.