PFLUGERVILLE, Texas — A Pflugerville creek is full of dead fish following a treated wastewater spill.
A pump failure at a Windermere Utility wastewater treatment plant affected Gilleland Creek near Pfenning Lane and Swenson Farms Boulevard.
The pump failure was discovered by Windermere Utility on Monday at approximately 8:30 p.m.
“Unfortunately, the decrease of dissolved oxygen in the water, combined with extreme summer heat, resulted in the death of fish in Gilleland Creek,” Gary Rose, the director of operations for Windermere Utility, said. “Our crews took immediate action and worked overnight to correct oxygen levels in the water and to collect the impacted fish they could find."
Rose said the incident was promptly reported to the City of Pflugerville and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
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According to Community Impact, the TCEQ and Southwest Water Company are currently handling the cleanup.
Rose said operators at the plant will continue to monitor the stream over the next several days and are now working on a plan to prevent this from happening in the future.
The number of fish that have died due to the spill has not been determined at this time.
It is worth noting that this was a treated wastewater spill, meaning the leaked sewage was not raw. Still, the wastewater had not yet completed the treatment process and had low levels of dissolved oxygen.
Windermere released the following wastewater discharge notice on Wednesday:
"A discharge from the Windermere wastewater treatment facility, located at 1625 Edgemere Drive, Pflugerville, occurred Monday, August 19th between 7 and 11:30 pm. An estimated 220 thousand gallons of treated, domestic wastewater containing insufficient dissolved oxygen was discharged through the facility’s outfall, which flows into Gilleland Creek. It is believed a mechanical pump issue at the treatment plant combined with high water temperatures is the cause of the low dissolved oxygen.
The City of Pflugerville and TCEQ Regional Office have been notified. The wastewater flow was diverted to another section of the treatment plant as soon as the operator became aware of the issue.
The mechanical pump issue at the treatment plant has been corrected and the plant has returned to normal operations. An undetermined number of fish were killed during the discharge. It is believed insufficient oxygen in the water is the cause of the fish kill. Utility crews have recovered the fish from the creek and will continue to search the creek banks for any additional fish.
In an abundance of caution, it is recommended to avoid swimming or wading in Gilleland Creek until laboratory tests and creek clean-up have concluded. The affected creek area ranges from Edgemere Drive to North Railroad Avenue.
For further information, please contact Tim Williford – Sr. EHS Manager at twilliford@swwc.com."
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