1.5 Million Gallons Of Sewage Enters Trench Used To Repair Fraser Sinkhole
FRASER (WWJ/AP) - Officials say about 1.5 million gallons of sewage flowed into a trench used to repair a sewer line that collapsed and created a sinkhole in Fraser.
The Macomb County Public Works Office says no one was in the trench at the time of the incident overnight Monday. There were no injuries.
The office said Wednesday about 9 feet of sewage initially filled the bottom of the 300-foot by 28-foot by 65-foot deep trench but it later diminished to 6 feet.
It says no sewage entered any local waters and that there was no impact on the Clinton River. It's being pumped out and returned to the sanitary sewer system.
Officials collected and tested 100 samples of water from the dewatering wells and other collection points around the trench and found no E.coli or other contaminants outside the trench.
It says three vehicles at the bottom of the trench were completely submerged.
It's not clear what caused the spill.
Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller calls it a "setback" in the work to repair the sinkhole and while "serious" she hopes the setback would not prevent the County from completing the project sometime in December of this year.
Twenty Fraser families were temporarily displaced, three homes were condemned, and roads were shut down because of the sinkhole that formed when a sewer line collapsed on Christmas Eve.
