Fountain Creek (Arkansas River tributary)

Colorado

During one flood in 1999, seventy million gallons of raw sewage poured into this creek at Colorado Springs.

disasterengineeringnatural

In 1999, a flood at Colorado Springs pushed about seventy million gallons of raw sewage into Fountain Creek. A blockage sent sewage backing up into houses. Pipes in the sewer system cracked. A spokesman for Colorado Springs Utilities put it plainly. That wiped out our whole wastewater system, he said. They lost roughly sixty-eight million gallons of untreated sewage. It was not a one-time accident. Between 1988 and 2003, about seventy-four million gallons of raw sewage spilled into the creek in total. Spills continued through 2004, and in 2005 more than three hundred thousand gallons of sewage and nonpotable water escaped, drawing a fine of a hundred and thirty thousand dollars from the state health department. A newspaper reported in 2007 that untreated sewage reached the creek an average of ten times a year. Downstream, the city of Pueblo drinks from the Arkansas River, and Fountain Creek runs into it.

This is the first of 2 parts. The rest runs about 2 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.

What this was written from
In 1999, 70 million gallons of raw sewage spilled into the creek at Colorado Springs during a flood.

Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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