WINDSOR — Discharge of untreated sewage Monday morning at the industrial park north of town caused minor damage to one business in the park.
A pump failure caused the spill, and while a second pump still was operating, Town Manager Tom Marsh said it could not keep up with the flow coming from the businesses in the park, including Harpoon Brewery.
“It was working but not fast enough,” said Marsh, who estimates the spill was limited to about 1,000 gallons.
Some of the untreated sewage backed up in the Land Air Express building at the far south end of the park, causing minor damage, while the rest came up through a manhole and puddled on the ground, Marsh said. Town crews sucked the material up using a truck with a pump, similar to what is used to pump out septic tanks or outhouses, and brought it to the treatment plant.
Marsh said Land Air Express brought in someone to clean up the waste in its facility and called its insurance company
“It was just enough to be reportable,” Marsh said, referring to a report filed with the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources.
The incident was reported at 7 a.m. Monday and declared over at 8 a.m.
Marsh said pipes from the various businesses in the park all run to a holding tank and the effluent is pumped through to a “wet well,” and from there through a pipe sending it south to the town’s wastewater treatment plant.
Harpoon “throttled” back its operation to reduce the flow to around 40 gallons a minute from 100 during this time, Marsh said.
“We have electric monitoring in place, which is how we found about the pump failure, and there is enough capacity in the holding tank — at least a day — to give us time to respond with the truck if the other pump fails,” Marsh said, adding they will check the tank daily while they wait for the new pump to be installed.
He expects a new pump to arrive this week.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
