The Hillsdale Board of Public Utilities received a call about raw sewage flowing out of a manhole located at the intersection of Oak Street and Willow Street at 9 a.m. Monday. About 30,000 gallons of sewage escaped before crews could stop the flow.
BPU has not yet identified what caused the blockage in the system.
The overflow sewage traveled through a nearby storm drainage area leading into the St. Joseph River. Water from the river was tested for concentration of fecal coliform, a bacteria that can cause severe illness.
Environmental Health Director of the Hillsdale Community Health Agency Rob Stauffer said the results came back “very low” and posed no health risks for the community.
BPU crews cleared out the blockage and used pumps to return what sewage they could back into the sewer system. Clean up was finished in the evening the same day the leak was reported.
“If it was in a different part of the city, you might have just a few hundred gallons get out on the ground before someone realizes what is going on,” said Superintendent of Water Distribution and Sewer Collection Bill Briggs. “As soon as the ground freezes up in the next few weeks we are going in and replacing that manhole and getting that one with holes in it out of there.”
