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Riverhead reports about 20,000‑gallon sewer overflow after July 4 power outage; cleanup completed
Summary
Riverhead Town said a power outage at a sewer plant led to roughly 20,000 gallons of partially treated sewage spilling on town property; county health and DEC were on site and the town said pumps were reset to stop the overflow.
Riverhead Town officials reported that a power outage at a sewer-district plant on the night of July 4 led to the overflow of roughly 20,000 gallons of partially treated sewage onto town property, the LTV East End News broadcast said.
According to the report, the facility lost electricity at about 9 p.m. on July 4; although power was restored by the next morning, employees arrived to find the spill. The town said crews used vacuums and treated the area with lime and disinfectant; the county health department and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation were on site while cleanup took place.
The town told the broadcast that it took about 30 minutes to stop the overflow by resetting the pumps and that the plant's alarm system had failed, disabling notifications that would have alerted staff. The town said the Sewer District plant is running smoothly again.
The broadcast attributed the account to a Riverhead press release; no individual town official was quoted directly in the segment. State investigators or the county health department were reported as observers on site in the cleanup process. The program did not report any enforcement actions or fines during the broadcast.
