KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WXMI) — The public is advised to avoid touching the water in the Kalamazoo River after 1.5 million gallons of partially treated wastewater was discharged late Thursday night.
Kalamazoo officials say the Department of Public Services was alerted to the problem before 10:40 p.m. on Thursday. The disinfection feed system, the source of the problem, was fixed before midnight.
"From 10:38 p.m. to 11:56 p.m., there was approximately 1.56 million gallons of flow that continued to go through that cooling contact chamber, but without chlorine for disinfection," Public Service Director and City Engineer James Baker explained. "There was a bit of a high pressure shutdown, potentially caused by some electrical issues."
We’re told the advisory impacts the portion of the river that runs between the Paterson Street Bridge and Cooper Township's D Avenue Bridge.
The advisory will be lifted once testing determines health risk is minimal.
"There is a risk to human health and that risk is based on the potential or risks of those pathogenic bacteria that could have been released," Baker said.
He added that while people and pets should stay away, the water did go through every other treatment process except the final steps involving chlorine, so there is no environmental concern.
"We started doing testing (Friday) morning. Those tests take 24 hours to come back. We're going to be doing testing throughout the weekend. We want to make sure that the bacteria levels in the river haven't risen to levels that would be of concern," Baker added.
Samples collected Friday will be ready for review Saturday, city officials say.
The city already added real-time alarms that will go off as soon as the pumps stop working to make sure this doesn't happen again.
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy has been informed of the discharge.
Those with questions are instructed to call DPS at 269-337-8768.
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