Human Error To Blame For Sewage Spill

After a spill of more than 1.5 million gallons of partially-treated wastewater into Casco Bay last week, a report on the incident from Portland Water District says human error was to blame.

The report also says that there weren't any alarms on the tanks that would have indicated they were getting close to overflowing. Scott Firmin is the director of Wastewater Service for the Water District. He says the tanks weren't alarmed because they're regularly cleaned to prevent buildup of material on the bottom.

“So the high level float is probably something we would not expect to happen, and for that reason it wasn't installed,” he says. “We're certainly, as we've committed to, going to take a look at what it would take to get something installed.”

The spill was originally reported as being about 1 million gallons, but the new report shows it was actually much more, just under 1.7 million. East End beach was closed temporarily as a result, but reopened within 48 hours. A walking trail destroyed by the spill, reopened Wednesday.