by Ron Fonger | The Flint Journal
Thursday September 03, 2009
FLINT — The city says vandalism appears to be behind a 14,000-gallon sewage spill into Swartz Creek Monday.
Dawn Jones, a spokeswoman for Flint Mayor Dayne Walling, said today that city utility officials believe a person or persons took off a manhole cover from the area and dropped four large chunks of asphalt in.
The asphalt plugged the city sewer, resulting in spills of 10,000 gallons of raw sewage on the ground and 4,000 more into Swartz Creek, according to a report by the city to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
The city’s report said the spill was discovered at 11 a.m. Monday and continued until 6:30 p.m. that same day in the area east of Hammerburg Road, south of Miller Road and north of I-69.
Jones said the relatively small amount of asphalt in the sewer led officials to believe it was not dumped by a construction company looking to dispose of waste.
Police are not investigating the incident, Jones said.