Mich. Officials Ponder Disappearance of Sewage

SAND LAKE, Mich. – About 15 million gallons of partially treated sewage water disappeared from a 250,000 square-foot storage lagoon into a sinkhole, but officials don’t know where it went after that.

Kent County utility operator Nathan Danenberg, who runs the sewage treatment system for Sand Lake, discovered the leak in the 8- foot-deep lagoon on Friday while taking samples. It wasn’t clear when or why the leak occurred.

"I don’t know if maybe there are old mines in the area," Danenberg told The Grand Rapids Press for a story published Tuesday.

"We don’t smell anything, and we don’t see anything."

Mike Bolf, drinking water district engineer for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, said the state would conduct tests on nearby municipal wells, which are downstream as groundwater flows.