Merrimack sewage spill probed
Advocacy group chief says wetlands in peril
The EPA and state environmental officials have launched a joint investigation into a water treatment plant’s spillage of millions of gallons of raw sewage into the Merrimack River, as others continue to raise questions about the facility’s oversight.
The head of the North Andover plant, Cheri Cousens, told the Herald yesterday she was confident the river’s heavy flow after the storm pushed any contaminated water out to sea.
“I don’t believe it’s a health issue,” she said, adding “Hopefully, no one’s swimming in the river right now.”
David Deegan, a spokesman for the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s New England regional office, said in an email yesterday the probe will focus on “the circumstances that led to the unexpected release of sewage ... during and following the storm Sunday night.”
After the storm knocked out power Monday, the Greater Lawrence Sanitary District pump station malfunctioned, spilling raw sewage for 13 hours into a river that 600,000 people use for drinking water.
Since there are no drinking water intakes from the river below the area of the discharge, no impacts to the drinking water supply are expected, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection said yesterday.
The state Division of Marine Fisheries did close all areas at the mouth of the Merrimack
River to shellfishing on Monday at the height of the spill.
The president of a nonprofit committed to cleaning up the Merrimack River said marshes, wetlands and beaches also will pay the price for the spill.
“The story of it all getting washed out to the ocean, it’s not true,” Rocky Morrison of the Methuenbased Clean River Project said. “I can tell you the impact: Plastic tampon applicators, condoms ... They’re going to be winding up in all the bushes and the plant life.”
Morrison noted there also is a bird sanctuary on Plum Island.
Cousens said the GLSD is looking at ways to “improve,” including installing two heat and power generators at its main treatment plant by early next year.
However, Rusty Russell, executive director of the Merrimack River Watershed Council, said federal and state regulators should investigate why the treatment facility didn’t already have backup generators.
“A vital piece of infrastructure like this should have a backup,” Russell said.
Although federal overseers do not require the plant to notify the general public, Cousens said that at approximately 10 a.m. Monday, she contacted the EPA, the DEP and officials in Amesbury, Groveland, Newbury, Newburyport, Salisbury, Merrimac, West Newbury and Haverhill.
Amesbury Mayor Kenneth C. Gray, however, said the city’s health director was not notified until 6:32 p.m. Tuesday in a group email to all of those officials.