Raw Sewage Dumped At Idahline Lift Station
POST FALLS – A sewage spill at a North Idaho lift station may have dumped as much as 200,000 gallons of raw waste onto the ground.
It will probably be several weeks before officials in Post Falls know how exactly a sewage spill might have affected the regional aquifer. The sewage spill, which was discovered at the Idahline lift station Monday morning, may have started as early as Saturday.
The lift station is under construction near the intersection of 5th and Pleasant View and according to Public Works Director Terry Werner a pump stopped working and a broken alarm system are to blame for the estimated 200,000 gallons of raw sewage that overflowed and started collecting on the ground.
“Weekends we don’t have as much flow as we do during the week so it could have been worse,” Werner said.
No one really knows when exactly the sewage overflowed, but Maria Briseno, who manages a Mexican restaurant near the lift station, says she noticed the smell of sewage as early as Saturday.
“That’s something you don’t want to smell before you actually get into a restaurant to eat,” she said.
Once officials were notified of the raw sewage early Monday morning they sent crews to clean the sewage off the ground, then flooded the area with chlorine and covered the spill area with dirt.
