N.C. Authorities Respond To 250,000 Gallon Sewage Spill

A tiny North Carolina city spilled a large amount of wastewater into local waterways this month, drawing oversight from state authorities.

About “250,000 gallons of sewage is estimated to have spilled into the Deep River after a pipe burst at a Randleman Wastewater pump station on Upton Street,” Fox 8 reported, citing city officials. Residents in a town downstream from the spill were not immediately notified, prompting complaints from locals.

Randleman only has about 5,000 residents, but the Deep River is an important water source across the region. It supplies water to the Randleman Lake reservoir, which was built a decade ago to help “develop a safe and dependable water supply for North Carolina's Piedmont Triad region that will satisfy the projected water demand for a period of 50 years,” according to project documents.

State regulators provided oversight after the spill. “Officials say they are requiring Randleman to test the water around the spill. [State officials] alerted the two closest downstream water systems along the Deep River — Pilgrim’s Pride Water System and the city of Sanford,” Fox 8 reported.

The same region underwent a similar spill a few years back when thousands of gallons of wastewater went into Randleman Lake after a sewer break, Fox 8 reported at the time.

Though a big spill for a small town, Randleman is hardly the only city to let wastewater contaminate local waterways.

Sometimes the spills are much larger. Back in April, “about 3 million gallons of raw sewage discharged into the Kansas River [over a three-day period] after a power failure at a city of Topeka pump station,” The Topeka Capital-Journal reported, citing city officials.

For similar stories, visit Water Online’s Source Water Contamination Solutions Center.