Columbia crews clean up after second sewage spill in a month

By Joey Holleman - The (Columbia) State

COLUMBIA -- A pump malfunction allowed raw sewage to spill from a Columbia city pipe near the Broad River for nearly eight hours Monday.

Some of the sewage made it to the river just downstream from the Richland County Rowing Center dock, which could put a stain on what has been a positive program that lures collegiate rowing teams to Columbia for winter break practice sessions.

This is the second time in a month that the pumps have backed up at that location.

The Georgetown University crew's week of practices ended Monday afternoon. The Bucknell University team began practicing on the river Tuesday. Neither team missed a practice.

Despite the spill, Bucknell assistant coach Al Monte had a positive early impression of training on the Broad.

"It was beautiful and quiet this morning," said Monte, who didn't notice any odor Tuesday. "Obviously, it's not a good thing, but accidents will happen."

George Park, who serves as a liaison for the Columbia Rowing Club with the out-of-state teams, hated that the Bucknell team was greeted with a sewage odor when dropping off its boats after dark on Monday.

"You could smell it at the boathouse," Park said. "It's not a very good way to promote our water here. This is a real issue. People are coming in to use the river."

City employees began installing a temporary pump Tuesday, utilities director John Dooley said. They have been working on a plan for a temporary fix since the same pumps were overwhelmed during heavy rainfall on Dec. 11, he said.

More than 3 inches of rain fell Dec. 10 and 11. Some of the stormwater runoff ends up in sewage pipes, and the volume that day was more than the pumps could push through the underground sewage pipes running up the river's bank.

Dooley had planned to meet this week with the engineering team designing the temporary pump. That process was accelerated by Monday's spill, he said.

The city hasn't computed how much sewage leaked Monday. Nearly 350,000 gallons leaked during the early December spill, Dooley said.

A spill alarm went off at the pump station at 3-15 p.m. Monday, according to Thom Berry, spokesman for the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.

The pump malfunction caused sewage to back up and spill out of a manhole on the Rowing Center property near Interstate-20, about 50 yards inland from the boat storage area. The flow was stopped about midnight, Berry said.

The sewage ran into a trench and then into a quarter-mile of swampy wetlands. The water eventually flows through a culvert and into the river, but much of the worst of the pollution soaked into the wetlands.

Lime, which reduces odor and limits bacterial growth, was spread Tuesday around the leaky manhole and the trench. A small sign planted at the site warned people to avoid contact with the area.

Dooley said it could take up to a year to install new permanent pumps.

Local rowers had to walk past the manhole for a couple of years during disputes about the use of a road leading to the rowing center. Park said he could recall four or five other times when the odor hinted at minor spills. But Berry said his agency had no reports of pump failures at the site in recent years.

Sara Jenkins, whose yard backs up to the wetlands, walks her two German shepherds along the rowing center's access road nearly every day. She said she hadn't noticed any strange odor Monday or Tuesday.