ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 15, 1996 TAG: 9606170075
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRISTINA NUCKOLS STAFF WRITER
3.4 MILLION GALLONS of sewage, enough to fill the swimming pool at the Roanoke Valley YMCA 48 times, surged from two manholes Sunday.
John McMillen wasn't exactly delighted when his wife announced from their screened-in back porch Sunday that she could see a waterfall at the rear of their property.
The McMillens' ranch home backs up to Mudlick Creek, on the opposite bank from Garst Mill Road. Roanoke County had completed the installation of a sewer line along the road, and across McMillen's property, just two days earlier.
Although it was raining heavily, McMillen got in his car and crept down Garst Mill Road, peering through the rain-spattered windows to get a better look at the construction area.
"I couldn't believe it," he said. "I looked out at these manholes, and pouring out of them like Italian fountains - sewage!''
McMillen had seen a sewage spill behind his home last month, when a line broke during the construction work. The earlier spill, according to state environmental officials, sent 150,000 gallons of sewage into Mudlick Creek.
This time, the volume was much larger, although diluted with rainwater. Reports from the Department of Environmental Quality say 3.4 million gallons surged out of the two manholes Sunday - enough to fill the swimming pool at the Roanoke Valley YMCA 48 times. Another 3.2 million gallons followed Monday.
McMillen spent the rest of Sunday on the phone.
"A lot of answering machines working. A lot of voice mail," he said. "I would have called Jesus Christ if it had to be."
It wasn't until Monday that he learned what had happened.
The purpose of the construction project along Garst Mill Road, which began last summer, was to replace an aging, 15-inch clay line that was allowing rainwater to seep into it. Larry Boone, the county's sewer manager, said that line, and a parallel 10-inch sewer pipe, were replaced with a new 30-inch line to allow for future growth in the area.
But that 30-inch line feeds into an 18-inch city line, which in turn carries sewage to the regional wastewater treatment plant in Southeast Roanoke.
"We knew it was a possibility of some glitches," Boone said. "We didn't know exactly how the system was going to react."
County officials now know how it reacts under heavy rains: by backing up and overflowing.
Windsor Hills Supervisor Lee Eddy said the city's line probably will need to be upgraded. If the main pressure on the city line is from development in the county, he said, the county may need to help pay for the upgrade. However, he said, it's still unclear how much flow is from rainwater seepage.
City officials said the line is tagged for replacement, although no schedule has been set for the project.
"Eventually, we'll get around to that," said Jesse Perdue, the city's manager of utility line services. "It may move up on the list now. We'll be looking at that in the near future."
In the meantime, county officials have come up with Plan B. They are designing metal "restriction plates" that would be placed in manholes in Garst Mill Park, upstream from the ones that overflowed last weekend.
Once the plates are in place, they will restrict the flow volume before it gets to the 30-inch line, Boone said.
There's still a possibility of overflows during heavy rains, said Gary Robertson, the county's director of utilities. However, they would occur in a wooded, undeveloped section of Garst Mill Park near Halevan Road, not on private property. Robertson said overflows have occurred in that section of the park during heavy rains for the past several years, and the construction apparently just shifted the pressure point.
Within the next year, the county also plans to replace another leaky section of pipe between Cresthill Drive and U.S. 419, which Robertson said should further alleviate the problem in the Mudlick Creek area.
Jim Smith, who handles enforcement for the Department of Environmental Quality's water division in Roanoke, said the state is concentrating on the larger issue of reducing rainwater seepage into sewer pipes, something that all five localities using the regional wastewater treatment plant are working on. In fact, that's exactly what the county was trying to do when it installed the new line along Garst Mill Road.
The regional plant has a capacity of 35 million gallons a day, but since the early '90s has occasionally taken a daily flow topping 40 million gallons. State officials ordered that the plant be expanded. Plans are under way to increase its capacity to 62 million gallons a day. Roanoke, Salem, Vinton and the counties of Roanoke and Botetourt also are working to reduce rainwater seepage into sewers and storm drains, which accounts for an average of 40 percent of the flow through the plant.
Because all five localities are replacing leaky sewer lines, Smith said, an occasional bottleneck should be no surprise.
"The chances of them being synchronized would be virtually miraculous," he said.
Because Roanoke County officials have cooperated with the state on the project, Smith said the DEQ isn't likely to "nickel and dime" them over individual accidents so long as they resolve the problem. He said spills topping 1 million gallons are not uncommon even in small towns when a line breaks.
"Fortunately for the environment," he said, "it usually occurs during heavy rainfall," so the sewage is diluted.
The Environmental Protection Agency has assigned an investigator to look into the situation, but no one has visited the site. McMillen suspects they won't be interested.
"The first thing the EPA guy said was `Any fish killed?' I said, `I don't think there's any fish in that creek but minnows.'''
Tim Myers, an environmental health official with the city's Health Department, said any bacteria that survived the lime the county spread on the spill will die as the rains stop and the soil dries. Infection can occur only if the bacteria are ingested or put in contact with an open wound, so he simply advises local residents to stay off the spill area.
Kim Richards, whose front yard contains a manhole that overflowed last weekend, said she's keeping her cat in the basement and her puppy and 2-year-old son, Harrison, in the house for now.
"I was really worried," she said. "Here was human refuse in my front yard."
She said her son likes to look for muskrats, minnows and his favorite, a turtle, along the creek bank. But that's off limits now.
"Turtle's probably a goner," she muttered.
But both the Richards and the McMillens say they're satisfied with the county's plan to resolve the situation. They just hope it doesn't rain in the meantime.
Staff writer Cathryn McCue contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Long : 124 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: PHILIP HOLMAN/Staff. Kim Richards stands in the frontby CNByard of her house on Garst Mill Road beside the eroded bank of
Mudlick Creek. The erosion occurred Sunday when an extension of the
county sewer system overflowed. color. Graphic: Map.