10,000 gallons of sewer plant sludge leaks into Slate Creek

A file photo of Newton's wastewater treatment plant.

By Adam Strunk

You may want to avoid swimming in parts of Sand Creek or Slate Creek any time soon. For one, it’s cold. And two, 10,000 of “sludge” from Newton’s sewer system leaked into the waterways this weekend.

According to a City of Newton release, “A valve on the line going from the settling basin (clarifiers) to the digesters failed, causing sludge to be discharged on plant property. Approximately 10,000 gallons of sludge made it to Slate Creek via storm sewers. Slate Creek drains to Sand Creek near the Wastewater Treatment Plant.”

This prompted the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to issue an advisory for the two creeks due to potential elevated bacteria and contaminants.

“If you live or have activities near this stream, do not enter the stream or allow children or pets to enter the stream,” the advisory stated.

The advisory will be lifted once secondary contact with the water–wading–is deemed safe.

And for context, the wastewater treatment plant is located along SW 14th Street. The dammed section of Sand Creek that people walk along is all upstream of the Slate Creek-Sand Creek confluence.

The City of Newton release stated that staff has fixed the problem.

“Water/wastewater staff quickly cleaned up the discharge so that no additional sludge would reach the creek, and they will sample water quality in the creek as previously scheduled,” it said.

It also noted that the plant releases one million gallons of water into Slate Creek during this time of year, meaning that the sludge would be diluted.

We’ll update the story when more information becomes available.

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