Subcontractors working for Aqua Texas used a vaccuum truck to remove water from a creek and put back into the city’s sewage system through a manhole. (Below) The city’s wastewater treatment plant is off FM 150 E behind the Waterleaf subdivision. (Photos by Sean Kimmons)
by KAY RICHTER and BRAD ROLLINS
Officials say they are taking steps to prevent a repeat of a sewage spill last week that dumped as much of one million gallons — ten times what was initially reported — of untreated and undertreated wastewater into a tributary of Plum Creek.
A pump at the city’s wastewater treatment plant near FM 150 in eastern Kyle did not turn on causing sewage to accumulate at an intake point to the plant and flow out of a nearby manhole. When the problem was discovered, a contractor turned on booster pumps to send the accumulated sewage through a lift station and into the plant for treatment, a move that caused effluent to spill out of the other end of the plant into the creek.
The spill, which began the evening of Sunday, Oct. 31 and continued into early Nov. 1, was reported to the Texas Commissioner on Environmental Quality and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, both of whom dispatched agents to survey the spill.
The city of Kyle spokesperson initially described the the spill as “in excess of 100,000 gallons” but later evaluation determined that number could be as high as one million gallons, said Bob Laughman, president of Aqua Texas, the contractor that operates the plant on behalf of the city.
Company and city officials are working to “make whatever operational changes and equipment upgrades are necessary to prevent such a spill in the future,” city spokesperson Jerry Hendrix said. The measures include installing equipment to prevent grease from reaching the lift station where the malfunction occurred and installation of a transmitter to send data about levels in the system to the plant’s control room.
“We are very concerned about the situation and we’re going to address it so that it does not happen again,” Laughman said.
The spill was reported by a Hays County road crew the morning of Nov. 1 when they noticed a torrent of dark, smelly water rushing down the creek where it crosses Heindenreich Lane. Stephen Tridwell, a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologist, said the oxygen level at the spot – less than a quarter mile from the plant – was 0.2 milligrams per liter that afternoon; 3 milligrams per liter is the minimum oxygen level needed to keep fish alive.
The spill has caused the death of an estimated 2,000 fish, biologists who have assessed the damage say, and that number is expected to grow as the contamination moves down Plum Creek toward the San Marcos River. Monitors from the Guadalupe Blanco River Authority water quality section found dead fish blamed on the spill as far downstream as Plum Creek at Texas 21 on Nov. 3.
“The spill has killed everything in the water as it moves downstream. The biologist’s concern is that as the sewage moves down stream, more fish will die,” said Mike Cox, a Texas Parks and Wildlife spokesperson.
