Thousands of gallons of raw sewage pour into NC river as Isaias dumps rain on region
About 3,700 gallons of untreated wastewater landed in a tributary of the Catawba River Basin on Monday as rain from Hurricane Isaias battered the region, city officials say.
The incident occurred at the Clinchfield sewer pump station in Marion, roughly 90 miles northwest of Charlotte, according to a city news release.
Officials said the spill was “caused by excessive rainfall entering into the collection system.”
The sewage was dumped into “an unnamed tributary of Lake James,” part of the Catawba River Basin, according to the news release.
City officials are required to notify the public of any sewage spill larger than 1,000 gallons by state law.
Hurricane Isaias made landfall near Ocean Isle Beach just after 11 p.m. Monday, spawning flooding, power outages and tornadoes across the state, McClatchy News reported.
“The western Carolinas and northeast Georgia were largely spared from significant impacts,” the National Weather Service for Greenville-Spartanburg said in a Facebook post.
But forecasters did warn of “serious flash flooding” across the mid-Atlantic.
McDowell County — where Marion is the county seat — saw between 3 and 4.5 inches of rain between Monday and Tuesday, The McDowell News reported.
The area was also under a flood advisory on Monday until 3 p.m., according to McDowell County Emergency Management.
The National Weather Service warned of isolated and scattered thunderstorms continuing across western North Carolina in a hazardous weather outlook Tuesday.
“A few strong storms remain possible, producing cloud to ground lightning, brief downpours and gusty winds,” forecasters said.
It’s not the first time rain has caused a sewage spill in Marion.
Roughly 3,500 gallons of untreated water from the same sewer pump station spilled into the Catawba River Basin in May, The McDowell News reported.
City officials attributed it to “excessive rainfall” while the county was under a local state of emergency because of heavy precipitation.
