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Raw sewage
leaks into water supply
Quincy Patriot
Ledger - 4/14
Public
works crews were still cleaning up today after heavy weekend rains
caused sewer overflows that flooded several streets around town
and caused raw sewage to leak into local water supplies.
For
most of the weekend, a backed-up sewer pipe on the corner of Pleasant
and Pine streets dumped feces, toilet paper and other untreated
waste into the Old Swamp River, which runs into Whitman’s
Pond.
Flooding
occurred near the intersection of Pleasant and Pine streets and
on West Lake Drive and Washington Street in Weymouth Landing.
Town
officials blamed the flooding on the Massachusetts Water Resource
Authority, which treats sewage from Weymouth, Braintree, Randolph
and Holbrook.
‘‘The
town used to have overflows when there would be one inch of rain
in a 24-hour period. Weymouth received two inches of rain in 22
hours Friday night,’’ said Jane Hackett, the mayor’s
chief of staff.
Hackett
said the water authority contacted the town Friday night. ‘‘They
were at capacity and were full,’’ she said. ‘‘Our
flow has to go somewhere else, and the (water authority’s)
ability to handle our flow did not work on Friday.’’
Jonathan
Yeo, a spokesman for the water authority, could not confirm whether
someone had called Weymouth officials Friday night. He said the
flooding in town during the weekend was caused by ‘‘local
conditions’’ and not by the lack of capacity at the
water authority.
Regular
sewage overflows have plagued Weymouth for more than 20 years,
especially during rainstorms, when water leaks into aging sewer
pipes.
Town
officials have said recently that the town’s water and sewer
system is significantly improved and that, for the most part,
they have gotten a handle on overflows that were common five years
ago.
Some
residents don’t believe that. Phil Munroe, a resident on
Summit Street, said he has seen flooding caused by faulty sewer
pipes several times this year.
‘‘They
say it has been dramatically improved, but you have to take into
account that we didn’t get any rain last summer, that it
was one of the driest summers on records, so we didn’t see
(any improvement) last year,’’ he said.
District
4 Town Councilor Arthur Mathews, who was at the scene of the flooding
on Pleasant and Pine streets yesterday, did not echo town officials’
statements that the system has been by-and-large fixed. ‘‘It
was worse yesterday,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m
disappointed and ashamed.’’
Town
officials said at least five homes around town had flooding due
to the sewer overflows.
Some
residents reportedly could not flush their toilets, and water
was ankle deep in some areas of town.
Robert
Mills of Pine Street is selling his house, and the sewer issue
is one of the reasons he is moving.
‘‘The
problem is out of control,’’ Mills said. ‘‘I’m
going to call the mayor and tell him to come down here and look
at what is happening. I’ve had enough.’’
Town
officials said today that work done on tightening the sewer system’s
pipes and reducing the amount of flow through them during the
past three years helped to make this weekend’s flooding far
less substantial than it would have been then.
Flooding
would have been more spread out and more immediate three to five
years ago, according to public works Superintendent Robert O’Conner.
Some
pipes and manholes were still ‘‘seeping,’’
O’Conner said. DPW workers were expected to continue to work
throughout the day.
Officials
at the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority acknowledged that
its facility near Smelt Brook was at full capacity this weekend,
but that it was not the only cause of local flooding.
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