Sewage Spill!!!!!!!!

For those of you who haven’t heard some brilliant folk at the Waste Treatment plant in Stewartville, Mn

some how left a valve open, in turn, dumping 42,000 gallons of sludge and raw sewage into the NOrth Branch of

the Root River!

Just so happens this is one of my favorite places to spend time! Guess what, it all flows down stream, connecting to many

tributaries, the main branch of the Root and Eventually the Mississippi!

What a way to really put a damper on a good mood!

So much for that ecosystem for quite a while, and it was just getting use to the dam removal in that town as well!

Apparently they won;t see the real effects until water temps warm! Great!!! Man I’m pissed!

Jim W

I feel for you and the river. I would hate to see it happen on a strech I was fishing. Keep posting if you here more on it.

you got to be kidding me!!! how can you ACCIDENTALLY let 42,000 gallons of sewage escape. 42,000!!! its not like 100 or even 1000. 42,000 gallons!!! good god, someone please help me out here.

so what do you think this will do for the fishing in the root? will it be completely wiped out for a while? how far down stream do you think it will it effect?

i can’t believe i hadn’t heard about this yet. when did it happen?

geez, 42,000

Forty-two thousand?

What, was there a chili cookoff in Stewartville last night or something?

Seriously, this is terrible news.

This is terrible. I live about a half mile from the Root and fish it a lot. It is full of smallmouth and also has trout, walleye,sauger,crappies and I have heard of northerns being caught out of it. Kids swim in it all summer. I hope some heads roll over this. It just makes me sick.

Could someone post some links to news articles regarding this or is it being kept hush hush. I would expect some major clean up efforts, fines and whatever else.

According to Tues. Post Bulletin, it was caused by a broken valve. I know when I first heard on the radio tues. morning they said the valve was left open by accident. The PCA is there and according to them the possibility of a fish kill is very real. It happened late Sunday or early Monday. The plant staff is supposed to start using a special pump to recover some of the spill. How much is some?? Heard a lot of rumors but nothing else for sure.

I hate to say it but if it was a farmer with an accidental discharge from a lagoon he would be strung up . Cities can get by with it because “It was an accident”. They are all accidents but the municipal systems never get nailed for 5.00$ a fish,game fish were much more expensive. It has happen down here at Burlington Iowa but the river was high and no one ever was held responsible.

Here is a link to the latest article from the Rochester Post Bulletin. I’m not positive, but most of you will probably not be able to get to this article. You have to subscribe to the paper in order to register for their web site. It is Userid and passowrd protected.

http://domweb.postbulletin.com/PBCWeb/PBCArticles.nsf/articlelookup/142214

WOW! This is sickening news. Rivers and streams can filter themselves every a mile or so, but that much spillage would take a lot of filtering. I am low, first the Striaght and now the Root. Jim, this part of the Root has been a favorite of mine too.
John

Hi Jim, I suppose I’ll be catching turds instead of bass now!!!!!!!!!! Does anyone have any idea as to how fast the river will be able to “clean” itself? I fish down by Whalan quite a bit, but I would imagine some (if not quite a bit) will make it that far to the point of doing harm to the system. Or just how far should we expect it to go? JLK

All,

I just received a note from Marylin Danks Biologist for the DNR’s Division of Ecological Services regarding the Sewage spill on the Root!

Here is what she said:

The fisheries crew from the Lanesboro office went out to check the river for a possible fish kill due to the sewage spill. THey didn’t find any dead fish.

The lead response agency to such spills is the PCA. Dennis Hayes of the Rochester office inestigated the site as well.

I spoke to him about it. He said a lot of effort was made to remove sewage spilled to the ground before it gained access to the river. They built coffer dams and raked a lot of material up from the ground. They also checked the river downstream and didn’t find any in the river. They monitored oxygen levels and found oxygen remained high.

For more information concerning actual data and analysis, please contact the Rochester PCA(which I have not done yet) and talk to Dennis Hayes at 507-280-2991

Jim W

this is definatly excelent news. it still amazes me that that much sewage was let go. hopefully they got the problem fixed up right.