1,700 gallons of sewage spill near Grants Pass

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Power supply problems caused more than 1,700 gallons of raw sewage to spill into the Rogue River from the Grants Pass wastewater treatment plant early Sunday, officials said.

The spill happened at 12:22 a.m. Sunday when no workers were at the plant and lasted for about four minutes, plant superintendent Tim Wilson said in a news release today.

At about 11:40 p.m. Saturday, the plant at 1200 S.W. Greenwood Ave. and its neighbors lost power for about 20 seconds, he reported. The plant's back-up power system kicked on, but a circuit breaker on a raw sewage inflow pump tripped, preventing the pump from starting when it was needed next.

An alarm was sent, but by the time workers could verify the problem, the spill had started, Wilson said in the release. They quickly reset the breaker to remedy the spill.

The city notified the Oregon Emergency Response System of the spill as required by its operating permit. Crews also will evaluate what caused the breaker to trip and look for ways to prevent that from happening in the future, Wilson said.

— Anita Burke

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