River advisory map
The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality issued a notice Friday to avoid portions of the Tallahatchie and Yazoo rivers following the collapse of a Greenwood wastewater line.
Sewage from the line has entered the Yazoo through the city’s treatment plant on Ione Street, although the collapsed line is situated across the levee along the 600 block of East Claiborne Avenue.
MDEQ recommends that people avoid contact with water from the Tallahatchie River from Money Road and the northern section of Grand Boulevard all the way downstream on the Yazoo to the Roebuck Road bridge, which is on County Road 512 in the southern part of the Rising Sun Community.
Avoid contact with the river water, the MDEQ advised. Don’t wade in it, fish in it and eat fish from it.
Robbie Wilbur of MDEQ said he’s unsure how long the warning will last.
Eddie Curry, director of Greenwood’s wastewater division, said the caved-in sewage line was discovered Friday morning.
The cave-in has allowed water from the river to enter the sewage line. From the sewage line, both sewage and river water enter a pumping station, Curry said.
On Wednesday, city workers noticed a vast amount of river water at the pumping station, which is at the city’s wastewater treatment plant on Ione Street. This was a bad sign since the river water brings in sand and grit to the plant.
That water was then redirected to a lagoon, which is next to the pumping station, but now the lagoon has filled up, Curry said.
Contents of the line did not directly contaminate the East Claiborne area, Curry said. Sewage flows through the line, which runs beneath the river, to the treatment plant, where the sewage is being directed into the lagoon.
On Friday the city declared a state of emergency to begin work to fix the caved-in pipe.
First a dam has to be built around the caved-in sewage line to prevent water from entering Curry said.
The dam should be finished around Saturday evening.
Curry said Friday he’s not sure how long it will take to fix the sewage line.
•Contact Gerard Edic at 581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
