Sludge Flood Kills Two At Wastewater Plant

A flood of sludge appears to have killed two workers at a wastewater treatment plant in El Paso, Texas.

"In a statement, El Paso Water Utilities President John Balliew said the surge of sludge filled the equipment room where the two employees" were working, the Associated Press reported.

The incident occurred at Roberto R. Bustamante Wastewater Treatment Plant. The employees were staff of the contractor Cubic Water.

The men were working on a pump replacement when the incident occurred, according to the report. They were in an equipment room. Firefighters helped recover the bodies.

The federal government is investigating what happened, according an account in the El Paso Times.

Diana Petterson, a director at the Labor Department, "said OSHA is investigating the deaths and has six months by law to complete the investigation," the El Paso Times reported.

Firefighters had to wait for sludge to be pumped out of the room before both bodies could be recovered, according to the report.

"Officials with the El Paso Fire Department and El Paso Water Utilities did not say what might have caused the room to flood," the report said.

A fire department spokesperson said the fatalities had been reported to the government, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality  (TCEQ).

"The initial reports to OSHA indicate the workers had been performing repair work in a pump pit between two clarifiers at the plant," Petterson said, per the report.

The plant in question "began serving the east, southeast, and Lower Valley parts of the city in 1991 and has a treatment capacity of 39 MGD," according to the utility.