By Steve Huffman
shuffman@salisburypost.com
A spill of as much as 16 million gallons of untreated wastewater from Thomasville wound up in High Rock Lake between July and August.
But the chance of Rowan County residents being affected by the spill through their water supply was nil said Jim Behmer, director of Salisbury-Rowan Utilities.
And there have been no reports of fish kills or other adverse effects of the spill in High Rock.
“It’s at least 4 miles downstream from our intake,” Behmer said of the site where the spill entered the lake. “As far as this particular spill is involved, we’re not at any risk.”
The city of Thomasville reported the spill to the N.C. Division of Water Quality on Aug. 4, initially saying that 385,000 gallons of wastewater had been released. A revised report was sent to the state last week, upping the estimated spill at 15.93 million gallons.
The report explained that the spill had been going on for several weeks before it was discovered.
The spill apparently took place when a manhole near the Baptist Children’s Home collapsed during a heavy rain on July 13. The wastewater flowed into North Hamby Creek and then Abbott’s Creek before finally emptying into High Rock Lake.
Dean Naujoks, the Yadkin Riverkeeper, said in a news release Monday that the city should have caught the spill earlier and accused Thomasville officials of purposely trying to hide the amount of the spill.
“Someone is lying about what took place out here because it is clear from the plant’s own data people knew this spill was happening,” Naujoks said in his release. “A 15-million gallon sewage spill, larger than the Exxon Valdez oil spill, does not go undetected for 20 days straight without someone knowing it is happening.”
The Exxon Valdez spill resulted in 10.8 million gallons of crude oil going into Alaska’s Prince William Sound in 1989.
Naujoks said he was alerted to the spill through an anonymous tip from a Thomasville plant operator.
“The town is pretty much under-reporting a massive spill,” he said.
That’s not true countered Mason Huffman, Thomasville’s public services director.
“There is no advantage to us as a city to lie about a spill,” he said. “It’s pretty hard to say someone should have known. There were no odor complaints downstream. There were no fish kills.”
Huffman said the problem was addressed on Aug. 3, the first day it was brought to the city’s attention. It was rectified Aug. 4.
Steve Mauney, environmental engineer for the N.C. Department of Environment, Health & Natural Resources, said that while any wastewater spill is a cause for concern, the spill in Thomasville likely isn’t as bad as it sounds.
He noted that the spill was spread over the course of 20 days, which would have resulted in any wastewater being diluted gradually rather than as a huge amount being dumped into area creeks all in one lump sum. Mauney also said the fact there was no fish kill as a result of the spill likely meant its impact wasn’t especially severe.
He said the estimate of 15.93 million gallons of wastewater being released in the spill was a “worst-case scenario.
“You can’t say any sewage overflow is not to be considered an issue,” Mauney said, but a fish kill would have indicated a high amount of spillage.”
He said there are “acute” and “chronic” impacts of such spillage. “Acute” impacts are immediate and “chronic” impacts are of lesser severity.
“This one, we didn’t see an acute impact,” Mauney said. “We can’t say about any possible chronic impact.”
Barbara Sifford, another engineer with the N.C. Department of Health & Natural Resources, said much the same. When told Naujoks compared the spill to the Exxon Valdez fiasco, she said, “That’s a bit of a stretch.”
Sifford conceded that the spill was “fairly significant,” but also said, “I would assume that if it hasn’t caused a fish kill, there are going to be no long-term effects.”
Thomasville has been in contact with the Environmental Protection Agency about the spill. The EPA didn’t return calls from the Post on Monday.
Thomasville paid a fine of $1,616 to the state in fines based on the initial estimate of the spill. City officials said the amount of the fine is likely to increase as the size of the spill is upgraded.