JUNE 27, 2015
STAMFORD, CT
An electrical malfunction at the Water Pollution Control Authority allowed 45,000 gallons of mostly treated effluent to escape recently into the East Branch of Stamford Harbor.
The effluent had gone through almost the entire treatment process but had yet to go through disinfection with ultraviolet light.
“It’s a safeguard for bacterial contamination,” WPCA Executive Director William Brink told The Advocate. “As far as impact I can’t really comment on that … I think it has minimal impact but I can’t really say.”
WPCA workers discovered the spill at 11:09 a.m. on June 17 and were able to stop it within minutes. Brink characterized it as a “relatively small” spill.
The channel through which the effluent travels is rigged to shut itself off if the UV system malfunctions, but in this case, the “communication circuit” that governed the stopgap malfunctioned, said Brink.