CHESAPEAKE, Va. — The Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) is testing water quality after 2,500 gallons of sewage spilled from a sewer line on Christmas Eve in Chesapeake.
Crews spent late Sunday night into early Christmas morning cleaning the intersection of Great Bridge Boulevard and Neal Street.
Kyle Curtis, an environmental scientist with HRSD, said a blockage in a sewer line caused the pipe to overflow.
"As soon as something sort of interrupts the flow then more stuff can kind of pile up on it and eventually the pipe surcharges," he said.
Some neighbors in the area said they smelled the sewage when it happened, and that odor has hung around since. HRSD said they cleared and contained the blockage early Christmas Day. HRSD leaders said they’ve installed a bypass to prevent additional spilling from that pipe in the area.
However, some of the overflow made its way into stormwater drainage structures along Neal and Marcus Streets that lead into Newton Creek, which is part of the Elizabeth River.
"When we have a release like this and it’s on the land, is usually because we have so much water around here, it unfortunately usually does find its way to some waterway," said Curtis.
He said they aren’t sure exactly how much of the 2,500 gallons ended up there, but cleanup began shortly after it happened.
"I know that we would initiate a cleanup that kind of assumes that a lot of it is going to get there because we want to mitigate that impact," Curtis said.
He also said water quality testing is underway and they’re waiting for those results.
Even if all of that sewage went into the water, Curtis said it’s not a major cause for concern environmentally.
"I know that when you hear some of these numbers of the amount of volume that was released, they sound really big because you think in terms of swimming pools or things like that, but it’s worth remembering that the Elizabeth River is, really, just a big estuary of the [Chesapeake] Bay," he said.
Curtis said having that tide change really mitigates any long-term impact and can get rid of that sewage in a matter of weeks.
"Obviously, we don’t want this to happen, but we do have that working on our side and so we don’t have any reason to think there are long-term impacts, even if a spill happens in a water body more than once."
As for neighbors or anyone interacting with this waterway or any other that might be contaminated, he has some advice.
"If for any reason you were to have come into contact with water that you thought was contaminated by sewage just for any reason, you know, it’s worthwhile to wash your hands, right? I don’t think you need to take measures beyond that," said Curtis.
He said the health department would be the ones to issue any sort of alert or health warning for instances like this, but they have not.