30,000 Gallons Of Sewage Sludge Leaked Toward Reynolds Channel Off Long Beach, City Says

LONG BEACH, NY — 30,000 gallons of partially treated sewage sludge was discharged into the Reynolds Channel Sunday morning after an operator error caused a sewage tank to overflow, Long Beach City officials said.

According to an announcement, the sewage overflow occurred at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, after a plant operator failed to close a valve, which allowed partially-treated sewage sludge to run back to a primary sludge tank. That back flow, the city said, caused the primary tank to overflow onto the ground below and into the sewage plant’s stormwater system. While it had been partially treated already, the city said the secondary sludge had not been disinfected at the time of the overflow.

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City officials confirmed to Patch Wednesday that the municipal fishing pier had been cleared in the wake of the spill as a safety precaution, and said that at least 10,000 gallons of the sewage sludge had been captured on-site at the wastewater treatment plant by a vacuum truck. While much of the spill had already dissipated by Wednesday, officials said the remaining sludge would be moved along by the movement of the tides. Per the city’s announcement, there was no imminent threat to life stemming from the spill.

The sewage spill isn't the first instance of outside contaminants entering the Reynolds Channel, which is classified as an impaired segment of water by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Under that classification, activities that the DEC calls “best uses” — things like fishing and swimming — aren't being supported by the quality of the water in a given area. In the case of the Reynolds Channel, the DEC lists a high concentration of nitrogen as the impairment to swimming and fishing along the channel.