18.5 Million Gallons Of Sewage Dumped Into Merrimack River

NORTH ANDOVER, MA -- The Greater Lawrence Sanitary District Sewage Treatment Plant in North Andover and a similar facility that serves Haverhill both reported sewage spills following rainfall of 2.4 inches in less than a day. A third plant, that serves Lowell, did not return phone calls Thursday afternoon.

The facility in North Andover serves North Andover, Andover, Lawrence, Methuen, parts of Dracut and Salem, New Hampshire and treats about 17 million gallons of sewage each day. By design, the plant dumps sewage directly into the river during periods of heavy rain that overwhelm the facility.

The Eagle-Tribune reported on Thursday that the North Andover plant spilled 18.5 million gallons into the river, and that the Lowell plant had also overflowed. Totals for the Lowell and Haverhill plants had still not been calculated, the newspaper said.

The plants in Lowell and North Andover overflowed in October, when both lost power for several hours during a storm. During a 13-hour power outage, the Greater Lawrence Sanitary District Sewage Treatment Plant dumped 8 million gallons of untreated sewage into the river.

For more on this story, see the Eagle-Tribune. Subscribe to North Andover Patch for more local news and real-time alerts.

Patch file photo.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).