It doesn’t appear the health of any Kamloops resident has been impacted after after small amounts of sewage made their way into the South Thompson River in Dallas earlier today.
Utility Supervisor Greg Wightman says, evidence indicates the source of the spill is a private utility cross-connection, after the sewer pipe outflow was connected to the storm sewer system.
He says the sewage came from a subdivision at the corner of Dallas Drive, east of the Petro Canada station, and was noticed by city staff inspecting storm drains in advance of any high water.
“They noticed what looked to be some toilet paper at the storm outlet into the South Thompson River, just at the end of Vanstone Road. That led it to a development out in Dallas where it appears there’s been a private cross connection. That’s kind of the industry term, what that means is that a sewer service was connected into the storm main. So we’ve got sewer getting into the storm, which then goes out into the river.”
Wightman says the city has taken immediate action to stop the flow of sewage into the river, and confirmed through testing at the water treatment plant that there has been no impact on the city’s drinking water.