A sewage plant in the middle of Georgia’s largest city spilled partially treated water into the Ocmulgee River after a series of equipment failures in December.
WMAZ-TV reports that the Macon Water Authority’s treatment plant dumped more than 100 million gallons of partially treated water into the river.
The water authority said it had problems with freezing weather and equipment failure at Graphic Packaging International’s paper mill. The plant is one of the authority’s largest sources of wastewater.
Wastewater from the paper mill overloaded the treatment plant, Water Authority Acting Director Ron Shipman said, and the plant released water with suspended solids up to 10 times above allowable levels.
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A Georgia wastewater plant spilled more than 100 million gallons of partially treated water into a river. The wastewater plant overloaded the treatment plant almost 10 times above the allowable levels.
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Shipman said the spill did not harm the river’s environment.
“We’re not talking about anything that hasn’t been treated. We’re talking about products or effluent that was treated. It just wasn’t treated to the standard we’re used to,” Shipman said.
Shipman said the water treatment is back to normal.
Two years ago, the water authority said a series of spills lasted nearly three months and dumped more than half a billion gallons of sewage into the river. The authority blamed excess solids released by Graphic Packaging.
The paper mill did not respond to a request for comment.
