Wipes burst sewage pipe

About 68kg of sewage spilled into Gowrie Creek

A BUILD-UP of flushable baby wipes has caused a pipe valve to crack and fail, spilling about 68kg of sewage into Gowrie Creek and the nearby land.

On August 20, a Toowoomba Regional Council sewer maintenance crew ran routine maintenance on the sewer rising main at Old Homebush Rd at Gowrie Junction near the bridge.

While exercising the scour valves, the crew had a liquid waste disposal truck on-site to capture raw sewerage collected in the concrete outlet chamber. To exercise the valve, the crew would partially open and close it while using the waste truck to vacuum the sewage out of nearby outlet chamber.

“When exercising scour valve number 18, the valve jammed due to a build-up of flushable wipes and was unable to fully close the valve, leading to the valve cracking and completely failing,” a council spokesman said.

“The disposal truck was unable to contain the volume of sewage once the valve failed.

“There was contamination of the road reserve, creek bank and adjacent property of approximately 350 square metres in total. The council isolated the main, repaired the valve and called in more waste trucks to clean up the sewage flow upstream.”

Council staff collected samples from Gowrie Creek and placed notice signs to warn the public of the contamination. The main was fixed by 8pm. Crews returned to the scene on Wednesday to clean up.

“The area around the scour valve pit and towards the creek was scraped clear with an excavator to remove the contaminated topsoil,” the spokesman said.

“All contaminated topsoil was removed from the site and disposed of safely and crusher dust together with a disinfectant solution was spread over the affected area.

The council expects treated waste water flows from the Wetalla Water Reclamation Facility will dilute the spill.