BPU issues health advisory after sewage spill

Home News BPU issues health advisory after sewage spill

The Hillsdale Board of Public Utilities issued a “No Contact” Health Advisory after untreated sewage water backed up in a pipeline east of Logan Street and spilled out of a manhole into the wetland area between Logan and Superior streets and the drainage ditch next to the Baw Beese Trail. The BPU cleared the blockage causing the spill, but the advisory will be in place until April 27 for safety purposes, according to BPU Director of Water and Wastewater Operations Nate Rusk.
“After we got the blockage cleared, we discovered someone had shoved some sticks down through the holes in the manhole lid,” Rusk said. “So the sludge started coming out of the two holes in the lid, which got into the swamp and fed into the drainage ditch that goes under Logan Street and toward Willow Street.”
The BPU placed sandbags in the wetland area between Logan and Superior streets to prevent the untreated water — known as “sludge” in the wastewater treatment process — from spreading. The BPU also installed a pump near the spill to send sludge to the Hillsdale Wastewater Treatment Plant, Rusk said.
“We’ll do that until we get most of it out of there, we did some today and we’ll do it tomorrow,” Rusk said.
Because the Baw Beese Trail is right next to the spill, the BPU issued a health advisory to anyone using the trail.
“We figured there’s probably kids on the bike path, and we didn’t want anyone going off the path into the wetland,” Rusk said.
The BPU is currently awaiting further direction from the Michigan Department of Economic Quality, and it contacted the Branch-Hillsdale-St. Joseph Community Health Agency for suggestions for cleaning up the spill. Rusk said the BPU conducted samples from the St. Joe River — where the wastewater treatment plant releases treated water — and didn’t find anything out of the ordinary.
“Everything was well within the limits, so that’s fantastic, it’s really good,” Rusk said.