WACO, Texas — More than 610,000 gallons of sewage flowed into Lake Waco, and now the city is making sure the water is safe to drink.
A power outage from a city wastewater collection facility caused the overflow, located at 8920 Skeet Eason Road. The power outage caused an electrical short that disabled the lift station.
25 News' Madison Myers spoke to the city to find out what’s being done about the overflow.
“We’re always treating our water and keeping it in high standard so that’s something that we’ll continue to do but in this particular situation we do have chlorination and then de-chlorination so that way that will keep things disinfected that’s the important thing,” said City of Waco Public Information Specialist, Jessica Sellers.
Sellers said the sewage flowed for 16 hours because of the time it took to gather equipment and assemble staff for repairs.
“They lost power, like [that] can happen when storms happen, but when that happens at a lift station people kind of have to spring into action so that’s where we were,” Sellers said.
The city told 25 News they don't believe sewage overflow into the lake will affect the city water supply.
“Sounds like a lot but when you talk about the volume of the lake it’s actually a pretty small amount which is good. The other thing is because of that rain, and also because of the water that’s in the lake, it all gets kind of diluted so it’s something that makes it less worrisome,” Sellers said.
There is currently more than 60 billion gallons of water in Lake Waco.
