Sewage Leaks Into Rappahannock

A malfunctioning sewer pump caused wastewater to overflow into the Rappahannock River in the vicinity of the old Embrey Power Plant.

The leak was first discovered on Tuesday evening when alarms alerted Fredericksburg Public Works Staff that a sewer pump was on the fritz. Soon afterwards, workers discovered the source of the problem: a rare double failure of the two sewer pumps at the intersection of Ford and Caroline streets.

By 8 p.m. on Wednesday, a temporary backup pump had been installed and the leak was stemmed. Today, contractors and public works employees were buzzing around the site trying to remove the broken pumps.

It is not yet known how much wastewater went into the river, according to Fredericksburg Public Works Director Doug Fawcett.

Signs warning potential watermen of the tainted river were posted at the City Dock on Wednesday after the leak was discovered. The City Dock is the closest downstream public access to the river, and is a popular desitnation point for anglers, tourists and idle residents.

Fawcett said that the timing of the leak, coming in late November, simplified the city's response.

"If it had to happen, it happened at a time of the year when not a lot of people are going to the river," said Fawcett in an interview. "If it happened in July, we'd have to be very aggressive in telling people not to go into the water."

The city has been taking samples from the river since the incident to search for fecal coliforms, bacteria which can indicate the presence of harmful waterborne pathogens, but the results of those samples are only just now coming in. Fawcett said he would be briefed on the results of the samples later this afternoon.

It is not yet known what, specifically, caused both pumps to fail. Once removed, the pumps will be sent off to be analyzed and-if possible-repaired. One of the pumps is believed to be more seriously damaged than the other, leading Fawcett to speculate that its failure may have contributed to a chain reaction resulting in the failure of the second pump.