WQCS00164_NOV-2020-DV-0061 Response_20200615

To; W. Corey Basinger, Regional Supervisor February 21, 2020
Division of Water Quality
From; Thomas Shrewsbury
City of Lowell
Public Works Director
Re; NOV-2020-DV-0061
Mr. Basinger,
This letter is in response to a spill that occurred at the Main Lift located on the Rankin
Street outfall. The spill took place on 1/13/2020 and was discovered during a routine
visual inspection of our high priority areas. All equipment was operable and City of
Lowell staff were on site for the event.
During visual inspections of several outfall lines, staff found this particular Iine running
very slow. More investigation found a partial blockage upstream, some manholes were
holding waste. There had been no spill when crews returned with the Jet Vac to clean the
lines.
Wet weather played a part in increasing the time it took to reach the area we needed to
be in. We had to use a ford tractor to pull the Jet Vac in due to a totally saturated outfall
going through the woods. Unfortunately by time we got to this location, a manhole had
begun to overflow. After the completion of the line cleaning we had to pay a towing
company $840.00 to get us out, partly due to the mess we made getting in.
We have since returned to check this section of outfall several times and work on the
outfall road to prevent issues in the future. We had not had any issues in the area in the
past but have added it to our quarterly cleaning log. I feel we we acted very diligent in
working to prevent spills and would not have encountered one today if the weather had
been more ideal. I believe we handled it to the best of our ability given the circumstances.
Respectfull , ,r
Thomas Shrewsbury
City of Lowell
704/913/1149