Record-breaking rain along with regular sewage flow was to blame for a burst pipe that dumped millions of gallons of raw sewage into Onondaga Lake late last week.
The 42-inch pipe that broke carries sewage from the Ley Creek Pump Station to Onondaga County’s wastewater treatment plant on the southern shore of Onondaga Lake. According to county officials, the leak was at the top part of the underground pipe very near the railroad crossing of the Onondaga Creek Inlet.
Noting the 50-year old pipe is part of an aging underground infrastructure, Onondaga County Water and Environment Protection Commissioner Tom Rhoads said this break is reflective of a bigger issue.
"Certainly it’s a resource issue,” Rhoads said. “Certainly we have a lot of buried infrastructure nationally that demands our attention.”
In this case, the commissioner said the break was repaired by Saturday evening and there were no health or environmental impacts stemming from the sewage spill that at one point dumped 5,000 gallons per minute of raw sewage into the lake.
He said going forward, there is not much that can be done locally to prevent breaks like this in half-century old pipes. According to Rhoads, the American Society of Engineers has given both the country and New York state a grade of D when it comes to the health of buried infrastructure on an A, B, C, D, F scale.
