Chapel Hill authorities stop 2000-gallon wastewater leak

About 2,000 gallons of untreated wastewater overflowed in Chapel Hill this week, spilling into Booker Creek and nearby Colony Lake.

The Orange Water and Sewer Authority stopped the Wednesday morning flow — which occurred after a sewer became blocked with grease near Albany Point — in 40 minutes and disinfected the area.

OWASA

Daria Lewis, who lives on Standish Drive by Colony Lake, didn’t know about the spill, but said she would be worried about animals near the lake.

“I didn’t even know there was a problem, but that would be a concern,” she said.

Feller said while spills sometimes kill fish, he doesn’t think that will be the case this time.

“Normally wastewater overflows don’t have a significant downstream impact,” Feller said.

But some think there are still reasons to be concerned about the environmental impact of an overflow.

“There are public health concerns about sewage and that’s why we pay attention to them,” said Julie McClintock, president of Friends of Bolin Creek.

McClintock said there was a wastewater overflow in her Coker Hills West neighborhood last year.

While she said tree roots were said to be the primary cause of the overflow, she wonders if there were also problems with the pipe.

“These do happen more often than we would like,” she said.

While about half of OWASA’s sanitary sewer system overflows are caused by improperly disposed fat and grease built up over time, debris build-up and tree roots — which get into the cracks of a sewer pipe, grow and cause a backup — are common.

Tree roots caused a 200-gallon March 1 sewage spill near Caswell Road. Thurman Green, OWASA’s water distribution and wastewater collection systems manager, said the likelihood and frequency of each spill depends on the sewer’s location.

From July 2010 to July 2011, Feller said OWASA had seven wastewater overflows, with a total estimated volume of 4,475 gallons.

McClintock said she thinks people need to be more protective of resources and more aware of what is put into the water supply.

“We need to have water and sewer service, but we need to think of ways to deliver those services without harming the creeks,” she said. “Nature can take care of this ultimately, but it can’t take care of some of the other toxins.”

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