Sanitary Sewer Line Spills After Bayou Embankment Collapses

HOUSTON (AP) — Houston water and sewer officials are urging residents with private water wells in part of the city’s western outskirts to boil their drinking and bathing water for at least one minute.
That’s after a 42-inch sanitary sewer pipe spilled more than 300,000 gallons of domestic wastewater.
A Houston Public Works statement says the south bank of Buffalo Bayou just east of Gessner Road collapsed Thursday morning as an aftereffect of Harvey-related flooding. Repairs are being complicated by difficult access to the leak and ground left unstable by erosion left by the flooding.
The spill affects at least 300 feet downstream from the leak. City officials advise persons using private drinking-water wells in the affected area to have their well water tested and disinfected, if necessary, before ceasing boiling or distillation.
Related News
From Archive

- 290-mile gas pipeline expansion proposed across Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina
- City of Albuquerque halts fiber optic construction in response to damage, complaints
- Body retrieved day after fatal trench collapse at Bakersfield, Calif., job site
- $227 million Garnet Valley water project advances, set to create 73,000 jobs in Nevada
- Pasadena, Calif., undergrounding project could take 500 years to finish
- Gehl and Mustang offer world’s largest skid loader
- Growing Pains and Gains
- Authorities investigating trench collapse that killed worker in Ashburn, Va.
- City of Albuquerque halts fiber optic construction in response to damage, complaints
- Pasadena, Calif., undergrounding project could take 500 years to finish
Comments