WASHINGTON 鈥� Roughly 140,000 gallons of wastewater spilled into area waterways in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties in Maryland over the weekend. WSSC crews were sent to Rockville and Fort Washington to contain the wayward wastewater.
The next step is figuring out the causes of each incident.
The first overflow in a wooded area near Redgate Farms Court in Rockville, Maryland, sent more than 40,000 gallons of untreated wastewater into Rock Creek between Friday afternoon and early Saturday morning.
According to a , that overflow started around 4:10 p.m. Friday and lasted until 2:10 a.m. Saturday. Crews worked throughout the night to bypass a portion of blocked pipe with an 鈥渙ver-pumping installation.鈥�
Crews have posted 20 signs notifying the public about the spills and have cleaned the area.
On Saturday, a 14-minute spill at a Broad Creek Wastewater Pumping Station in Fort Washington sent more than 100,000 gallons into a drainage channel that flows to Broad Creek.
That spill started at 4:39 p.m. and ended at 4:53 p.m.
Sixteen signs were posted at the overflow sight to notify the public about that incident.
鈥淲e鈥檙e still investigating a reason,鈥� WSSC鈥檚 Luis Maya said regarding both overflows.
WSSC has also notified Maryland鈥檚 Department of the Environment about both spills, as well as Montgomery County Department of Environmental Health and the Prince George鈥檚 County Health Department.
Even though they haven’t narrowed down the cause, Maya said 鈥渁bout 25 percent of the overflows we see are caused by fats, oils and grease.鈥�
Maya said things like baby wipes flushed down the toilet also cause pipe blockages.
He reminds customers that sewage pipes share similarities with the human circulatory system. It鈥檚 like 鈥渁n artery. If it鈥檚 too much grease, too many fats that are going down the pipes, it blocks it exactly the same way as a vein or an artery near your heart.鈥�
Maya also notes the difference between wastewater spills and broken water mains.
鈥淲e can鈥檛 just turn off the sewer pipe, so that鈥檚 why it continues to flow. If a water main breaks, or there鈥檚 something blocking it, we can just turn it off and it stops the water from going. It doesn鈥檛 work the same way for a sewer pipe. If we did, it would back up into houses, and we definitely don鈥檛 want to do that either.鈥�
One thing the utility stresses is that the tap water supply is safe.
鈥淲SSC鈥檚 sewer system is completely separate from the water system. There鈥檚 no need to worry about the water being contaminated,鈥� Maya said.
