HCWA Addresses Sewer Overflow at Oak Street Lift Station
Following the heavy rains that hit metro Atlanta this past weekend and into Monday, the Henry County Water Authority (HCWA) experienced a sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) at its Oak Street Lift Station, located at 122 Oak Street in Hampton.
Authority officials diagnosed that the SSO was caused by excessive inflow of rainwater from an open manhole at a construction site nearby, which caused an abnormally high volume of stormwater flow in the 24-inch sewer line entering the Oak Street Lift Station.
According to Authority officials, the overflow began around 2:00 a.m. on Monday Feb. 12, and concluded at 12:15 p.m. on Tuesday Feb. 13. As a result, calculations based on the duration and volume of the SSO concluded that approximately 1.5 million gallons of domestic wastewater, which was predominantly stormwater, overflowed at the Oak Street Lift Station.
HCWA crews responded quickly to pump excessive flow out of the lift station, while addressing the potentially contaminated area by spreading lime and conducting CCTV inspections (televising) of all lines upstream of the site to assure the system was restored and operating properly. The wastewater overflow was located within the Bear Creek watershed.
Even with the overflow being categorized as a major spill, HCWA officials do not anticipate any continued compromise of the integrity of its sewer system at this site, nor threat to public health.
For more information, please contact Tara Brown, HCWA Director of Strategic Planning, at 678-583-4502 or tara.brown@hcwa.com.
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