Nearly 850,000 gallons of raw sewage spill into the Catawba River in Charlotte
Nearly 850,000 gallons of raw sewage — more than enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool — spilled into the Catawba River near Old Dowd Road on Friday.
The spill happened near the Paw Creek Lift Station as a construction crew was working there, according to Cam Coley, a spokesman for Charlotte Water. It was the largest spill of untreated wastewater in Charlotte in more than a year.
The spill was downstream of Mountain Island Lake, the source of Charlotte’s drinking water, and Coley said he did not expect it would affect drinking water.
But Mecklenburg County’s Land Use and Environmental Services Agency will conduct water quality tests to determine whether to issue no-swim advisories in any of the nearby water, Coley said.
Charlotte Water is also notifying downstream water utilities as well as the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, Coley said.
The spill was caused by a “pipe alignment issue” during the construction project at the lift station, Charlotte Water said in a news release.
Crews were able to prevent an additional 99,000 gallons from reaching the river by pumping it and hauling it to another part of the wastewater system for treatment, Charlotte Water said.
While Friday’s sewage spill was large, it was by no means the most massive to occur in Charlotte. More than 2 million gallons spilled from a broken wastewater pipe near the Stewart Creek Greenway in February 2020. Another spill in 2018 released more than 15 million gallons into Long Creek.
Coley said Charlotte Water pumps 91 million gallons of wastewater each day, and that spills of this magnitude are rare.
“This is still a very large spill and we take it very seriously,” Coley said.
This story was originally published July 17, 2021 at 6:20 PM.
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