Sewage floods Belmont St.

July 21, 2005
By Martin Luttrell
TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Line break pours into lake

WORCESTER— A sudden break in a high-pressure sewer line opened a large hole in Belmont Street yesterday, causing a major traffic snarl and pouring thousands of gallons of untreated sewage into nearby Lake Quinsigamond.

The break formed a hole about 15 feet long and more than 6 feet deep in the westbound side of Belmont Street, also known as Route 9, just west of the North Lake Avenue intersection, and washed debris from the roadbed almost 500 feet down North Lake Avenue. The pressurized sewage dislodged granite curbing, buckling and cracking the pavement more than 50 feet from the break.

Regatta Point state park, which has a beach and boating docks on the lake, was closed, and the Regatta Point Community Sailing program was also terminated for the day. A park supervisor said the park could be closed through the weekend. Health officials in Worcester and Shrewsbury were notified, and will monitor bacteria levels in the lake.

More than a dozen police officers directed traffic while the eastbound side of Belmont Street was split in half to handle one lane each of eastbound and westbound traffic around the damaged roadway.

Robert L. Moylan Jr., commissioner of public works, said the main, 24-inches in diameter under the westbound lanes of Belmont Street, sent a geyser shooting out of the street during mid-day traffic. The main, which has broken in that area three times in 14 years, carries 7 million to 8 million gallons of sewage a day up Belmont Hill under Route 9, and on to the city’s sewage treatment plant in Millbury, about five miles away.

The break was reported at 12:30 p.m., and public works personnel shut down the pumps that forced the sewage through the line. Sewage was transferred to a backup line that parallels the damaged one, and customers were not affected, Mr. Moylan said.

“This is the type of thing you hope won’t happen on your watch,” Mr. Moylan said, surveying the scene with some of his personnel. “About a quarter of the city drains over to this side, and this main pumps this sewage up Belmont Hill. I don’t know when it was installed, but after it broke in 1991, a parallel line was installed as a backup.

“This is the second time that this backup line has been called into service. The road repair is incidental to the repair we need to make on this pipe. We have a private contractor on the way. It’s not a repair we can do. Our people will repair the road.”

Rush-hour traffic was slow around the repair site, and police and public works officials advised motorists to avoid the area for this morning’s commute. The repairs to the sewer line and road could take until midday or longer, they said.

That section of Belmont Street handles 35,000 to 40,000 vehicles a day, Mr. Moylan said.

Shortly after the break, Mr. Moylan notified the city health office and the state Department of Environmental Protection, which sent a representative to the scene.

An estimated 10,000 gallons of sewage made its way into Lake Quinsigamond through storm drains. At Regatta Point park, the inflow of sewage was obvious near the docks, with the light coffee-colored effluent flowing into the comparatively clear lake water.

Nearby, park workers were bolting an advisory sign to a picnic table that was standing on its end. The sign warned that bathing was prohibited because of high bacteria levels.

Park supervisor Joe Iagallo said about 50 bathers were told to leave the beach.

“We’ve been getting a lot of people here since July 4th,” he said. “They weren’t very happy when we told them, but when they realized why, they said they would go somewhere else. We’re closing the whole park.

“I spoke with the Health Department, and they estimated it would take three to five days” for the bacteria count to return to a safe level for swimming, Mr. Iagallo said. “A good thunderstorm would help flush it out. The sunlight will help kill some bacteria.”

DEP spokesman Edmund J. Coletta said the boards of health in the towns with shoreline on the lake will test the water daily to monitor bacteria levels.

“People need to keep out of the lake until the bacteria is killed off,” he said. “That usually takes a few days. This lake is recreational, it’s not a drinking water source.”

source: www.telegram.com