(quote)
Dear Johnny,
First off, Happy Holidays! I hope you are enjoying these hectic days leading up to the most wonderful time of the year.
I have attached a letter from the Riverkeeper, Brian Wheat, updating you on the recent sewage spill. Brian finally secured a meeting with base officials on December 12th to air our concerns. It was a productive meeting, and I believe that a cleaner river will be the result of some changes that are at hand over on Camp
Lejeune. Brian feels that it is important to update you on his progress, since you are the people that “pay the bills.” He works for all of us that want clean water, and we’re grateful that we can count you among his many employers!
Hopefully you have received our Annual Appeal letter already. I want to thank you for taking the time to review the letter during this busy season, and hope that
you will join us in our fight for a clean river. We have received many responses already. If one of those was yours, THANKS!! If you haven’t sent in your membership gift or other donation yet, please take another look. We can’t continue our work without your support.
For the river,
Tess Sanders
FROM THE RIVERKEEPER--
To our members and friends:
On December 12, 2007, Tess Sanders and I met with officials from Marine Corps Base, Camp Lejeune to discuss the actions surrounding the raw sewage spill that polluted portions of Northeast Creek and the New River. The meeting was attended by the base utilities director and members of his staff, a representative from the environmental department and public affairs officers and touched upon several areas.
What caused the spill?:
The lift station located on Northeast Creek failed some time during the afternoon of November 19th and was not discovered until shortly after 7PM that same evening. The timing that is now being released is different than what was originally released by the base public affairs office. Because the lift station emergency power was being tested earlier in the morning, several alarms were received and silenced at the monitoring station. Among them was the alarm sent when the lift station failed.
Why did it take so long to discover the spill?:
The lift station is normally unmanned and is, along with all other major lift stations, inspected every 8 hours. Since the alert of a system failure was improperly
silenced no one was aware of a problem.
What is being done to prevent sewage spills from reaching public waters in the future?:
The base is installing a new, state-of-the-art fiber optic data network that will not allow an improper silencing of an alarm. This new equipment will provide real time video monitoring of wet wells and pump rooms. The lift station located on Northeast Creek is scheduled to have this upgrade completed by late February 2008. Additionally, the base is now looking into installing diversion channels to prevent raw sewage from reaching public waters.
In addition to discussing the spill, considerable time was spent addressing the need for more aggressive steps being taken to alert the public of a potential
health hazard. Thougt the state allows for announcing a sewage spill 48 hours after the fact it was agreed by all parties that more timely notification is needed and
the base would look into speeding up that process.
Respectfully,
Brian Wheat
New Riverkeeper
Tess Sanders
New River Foundation Onslow
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Links:
The New Riverkeeper and The New River Foundation Onslow;
New River Foundation Onslow Blog
Till next time....
Tight lines!
Johnny
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