Note: There are two reports on the spill from the Denvery Post and the Rocky Mountain News. This spill was reportedly caused by the breaking of a platic liner inside the sewer. Is anyone knowledgable enouge about sewer lines to comment on how this might have happened?

250 to 300,000 Gallon Sewage Spill in Colorado

Sewage spilled into Denver's Barnum Park Lake, not river By Berny Morson Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

LAKEWOOD -- The raw sewage that flowed out of a Lakewood manhole ended up in Denver's Barnum Park Lake, health officials warned Monday. Metro Wastewater, the agency that treats sewage, estimated that more than 250,000 gallons flowed into Weir Gulch, the trickle of water that meanders through the west metro area and feeds Barnum Park Lake, said spokesman Steve Frank.

A blocked pipe near West Ohio Avenue and Fenton Street sent the sewage out of the manhole and into Weir Gulch on Saturday.

The blockage was caused when plastic used to line the inside of the sewer pipe came loose. The plastic prevents corrosion.

"This is something we hadn't seen before," he said of the spill.

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=002LkJ

Report in Denver Post up to 300,000 gallons

http://www.denverpost.com/news/news0118m.htm

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), January 18, 2000

Answers

Yech.

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), January 18, 2000.

Sewer serpent shed its lining, hhhmmm, that's newish.

At least it didn't back-up into living rooms ... glug glug swish sssshhhhhwring ... honey what's that water sound in the kitchen?
:-P

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), January 18, 2000.

HMMMMM an embedded system..........

-- Charli (claypool@belatlantic.net), January 18, 2000.

"...how this might have happened?"

Ever hear the tale of trying to stuff ten pounds of s*** in a five pound bag?

-- TrollStomper (DoomersUnited@TB2000.Net), January 18, 2000.

Now this is a topic LadyLogic is an expert on, and where is she when you need her?

-- rumdoodles (rumdoodles@yahoo.com), January 18, 2000.

Sounds as if the plastic lining could have been the culprit. Of course, the plastic lining coming loose could have been only one part of the problem. It is possible that there could still have been a Y2K-related failure that played a role, such as a problem with devices that might be used to monitor or regulate the flow of sewage or a device that would have alerted officials to the developing problem before it did the damage that it did.

Denver is the largest city that I heard of that did not remediate their systems prior to the rollover date. Denver was planning to "fix on failure".

Denver's situation should be closely watched for that if no other reason.

-- abc (abc@ad.dc), January 18, 2000.

FWIW, the plastic liner they speak of is called Insituform. Pipes are relined with plastic when they begin to age and deteriorate. This prolongs the "dig up the street and replace the sewers" project. A failure in the plastic liner could allow water penetration into the sewer. As the water flows in the hole, it "sucks sand" and creates a sinkhole, and eventually collapses. The large volume of earth suddenly plugs the pipe, and the sewage backs up and out of the nearest manhole.

-- trafficjam (road@construction.ahead), January 18, 2000.

Plastic liners break when you try to dig out fried embeddeds, heh.

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), January 18, 2000.