The operator of the city of Kyle's wastewater treatment plant, located off FM 150 behind the Waterleaf subdivision, has been sanctioned and fined for a wastewater spill there Oct. 31-Nov. 1. (File Photo)
STAFF REPORTS
The company that operates Kyle’s wastewater treatment plant will learn as early as this week how much it will be fined for violations that flow from a sewage spill this past fall.
The spill, on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, dumped roughly one million gallons of untreated and undertreated wastewater into an unnamed tributary of Plum Creek when a pump at the intake area at the wastewater treatment plant failed to engage, causing a backup of sewage. When the problem was discovered, workers turned on booster pumps which sent the backed up wastewater into the plant and caused undertreated effluent to spill out the other end into the creek.
The spill is blamed for the death of nearly 3,000 fish.
A spokesman for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said the state agency and the plant’s contractor, Aqua Texas, have been finalizing an “agreed order” to determine the amount of the fine and which violations the plant will be charged with.
In a letter dated Dec. 20, TCEQ alleges three violations relating to the spill:
• Failure to prevent an unauthorized discharge, killing the fish and leading to sewage odors, brown color, foam, low dissolved oxygen levels and high E. coli counts.
• Failure of the plant to operate properly for about 24 hours.
• Too much “suspended solids” in the sewage. The sewage should have had no more than 60 milligrams of suspended solids per liter, but a sample following the spill showed 79 milligrams per liter.
