Starkville Utilities and MDEQ Work to Clean Sewage From Waterway

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Utility workers in Starkville dealt with a smelly situation after catching a sewage leak running into Hollis Creek.

UPDATE: Damaged pipeline fixed from Starkville sewage spill

An advisory was issued, warning residents to stay clear of the creek.

Quick work by Starkville Utilities and the state Department of Environmental Quality may have minimized the damage.

It seemed like any other routine maintenance check for the sewage lines in Starkville, until a funny smell filled the air.

“Our operators started investigating and found a rupture, a leak, on some of our sewage that will be coming into the plant,” said Starkville Utilities GM, Terry Kemp.

Kemp says the department wasted no time.

“We got a plan, contractors are on site, and we are in the process now of correcting the problem,” he said.

Starkville Utilities is working closely with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality to test the quality of the water to measure how much was leaked.

“We know the levels right now are high because it was raw sewage, so probably tomorrow once the levels start dropping we’ll go back in and start assessing the streams and downstream of the break to determine the extent of the release,” said MDEQ’s Chief of Field Services Division, Doug Upton.

Hollis Creek runs into the Noxubee River and that empties into Bluff Lake.

While it’s a ways from the leak it will be tested.

“We really don’t expect to see the bacteria levels real high there but yeah we will be monitoring,” Upton added.

In the short-term, the water that was being pumped through the broken pipe is being rerouted to a nearby water treatment lagoon.

MDEQ is advising everyone to stay clear of the creek..

The quick catch to the leak and efforts to dilute the water kept the situation from becoming worse.

Kemp says the problem should be resolved within the week.

“This is part of our continual monitoring of our infrastructure and then hopefully will identify a solution so it does not happen again,” said Kemp.

We’d like to add this does not affect Starkville’s drinking water, only the water system of Hollis Creek.

Residents, your water is clean and safe to drink.