100 Gallons of Sewage Sludge Spills into River

Jul. 22–A city worker turned the wrong valve at Santa Fe’s wastewater-treatment plant and caused sewage sludge to spill into the Santa Fe River about 1 a.m. Thursday.

City wastewater-management director Qustandi “Costy” Kassiesieh said the spill did not create an environmental catastrophe because only about 100 gallons of sludge flowed into the river southwest of Santa Fe.

“They were supposed to open valves to move the sludge around, and they opened the wrong valve so the sludge came from Tank 2 to Tank 1,” he said. “Tank 1 started overflowing into the plant, and they noticed it about 1:30 (a.m.), and that’s when they started building berms with dirt.”

Kassiesieh said he notified both the state Environment Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, even though federal rules call for notification only if more than 250 gallons spills into a river.

State officials took photographs, he said, but “don’t seem to have any fear about how much went into the river.”

Environmental Department officials were not available for comment Thursday afternoon.

Kassiesieh said at 2:30 p.m. Thursday that city crews were still washing down and disinfecting the area where sludge had built up along an internal road through the wastewater-treatment plant on Airport Road, west of N.M. 599. He said sludge removed from the site was being put in drying beds.

As for the liquid sludge washed into the river toward La Cienega, Cochiti Reservoir and the Rio Grande, he said, “there’s nothing that needs to be done about it because the amount is too small, compared to the 5 million gallons” of treated effluent that is returned to the river daily.

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