East Haven, Connecticut - Wednesday, July 8, 2020: The Town of East Haven beach.

East Haven, Connecticut - Wednesday, July 8, 2020: The Town of East Haven beach.

Photo: Peter Hvizdak / Hearst Connecticut Media

East Haven, Connecticut - Wednesday, July 8, 2020: The Town of East Haven beach.

East Haven, Connecticut - Wednesday, July 8, 2020: The Town of East Haven beach.

Mill River sewage spill spurs closures of East Haven, Branford beaches

EAST HAVEN People will be prohibited from swimming or fishing at beaches in Branford and East Haven, as well as in New Haven, in the near term after millions of gallons of sewage spilled into the Mill River, officials said Wednesday.

In a message to residents, East Haven Mayor Joseph Carfora said he was forced to close town beaches to swimming, recreational shellfishing and fishing for several days or at least until the water is deemed safe by local health officials.

This is not a decision taken lightly but was done after consultation with local health officials who said the water is not currently safe to enter, said Carfora.

In Branford, town officials closed beaches and shellfishing areas until further notice, according to an announcement sent to residents.

We anticipate that the closures will last for the next 2-3 days depending on water quality testing. This applies to all public and private beaches, Branford officials said. For updates please check the East Shore Health Department website.

West Haven Parks & Recreation said on its Facebook page that, according to Health Director Maureen B. Lillis, as a precaution, city beaches are closed until further notice due to the sewage spill in New Haven. ... The city will notify the public once Lillis is confident that the beaches are safe to reopen.

Dr. Joseph Zelson, the former health director in Orange, said five members of his competitive swim team were training at Montowese Beach in Branford, as they do nearly every day, for about 45 minutes Tuesday before they were notified that the beaches were closed. There were no signs posted, he said.

He said he was concerned that something in the system was not working properly, given that information was not shared more broadly until two days after the spill.

There should be a better, more reliable system to disseminate information quickly and completely. Most towns have reverse 911 systems when they tell about road closures or parades and other less critical issues, said Zelson. This certainly should qualify. If yesterday wasnt so cold and windy and wavy, there would have been many swimmers in the water.

New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said Tuesday that more than 2 million gallons of sewage had spilled into the river near the Whitney Dam before a pipe was repaired by the Greater New Haven Water Pollution Control Authority.

At a news conference on Wednesday, he and other officials advised residents to avoid the river water in the near future.

As a resident of New Haven and a neighbor of the Mill River and someone that walks with my family along the Mill River all the time its obviously very concerning, the fact that we had a pretty significant sewage leak, Elicker said at the Wednesday press conference streamed by the New Haven Independent.

WPCA Director of Operations Gary Zrelak said the city was notified at roughly 5 a.m. Monday that water was running down Whitney Avenue, with officials finding a pipe collapse had blocked the normal flow of sewage down the major line which carries roughly 3 million gallons on a normal day and caused it to flow to the surface.

The nearest manhole is 2,100 feet away on Park Street, Zrelak said, complicating repair efforts. The portion of the pipe that collapsed does not have a cover, he said, to maintain a siphon effect that helps effluent run downhill.

The majority of the flow was stopped by 9:30 p.m. or so, Zrelak said, and completely closed by 1 p.m. Tuesday.

The segment of the pipe will be replaced, Zrelak said. It had already had been on the to-do list, he said crews had been scheduled to stop the line Tuesday to allow for the interior lining to be replaced; the collapse happened on Monday.

Murphys Law prevails, said Zrelak.

Zrelak said the WPCA would work on its notification skills and protocols for future incidents.

Elicker said the city had been informed of a small leak, but not told promptly about the true extent of the problem, delaying its ability to share information with residents.

He said a car full of youths pulled up alongside him while he was walking his dog around 7 p.m. Tuesday, telling him there were dead fish in the river he then realized there was a bigger issue than the city had thought, and the advisory to residents was issued shortly thereafter.

Zrelak said WPCA had notified the state and Hamden officials of the issue within two hours, as required, as the spill occurred over the line in that community.

The magnitude of the situation needs to be clearly communicated (in the future), said Zrelak.

New Haven Health Director Maritza Bond said residents were advised not to swim or boat in the river as a precautionary measure until water testing results come in.

Initial information was expected Wednesday afternoon, she said, with additional tests of water quality and safety scheduled for the coming days.

Elicker said the spill does not affect the safety of tap water.

Will Healey, spokesman with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said Tuesday that staffers had not seen a fishkill or visible solids in the river while monitoring the spill.

Typically there is minimal remediation that can be done for such an event. If there is evidence of solids, DEEP would expect the municipality to have crews perform cleanup of the solids. We dont recommend chlorination, as the impacts from chlorination are often worse than potential impacts of the sewage spill. Potential for bacterial impacts typically dissipates after 48 hours, Healey said in an email.

Healey said that while DEEP believes that this spill would not significantly impact water quality at either Hammonasset Beach State Park or Silver Sands State Park, additional water quality testing will be conducted at both on Thursday, with results available Friday. Hammonasset is in Madison and Silver Sands is in Milford.

Any closures will be announced on DEEPs Twitter feed, @CTStateParks, and at

https://portal.ct.gov/

whatsopenoutdoors.

UPDATE: The original version of this story indicated that the members of Joseph Zelsons swim team were training in the Mill River. He clarified Thursday that they were swimming off of Montowese Beach in Branford, which was also closed after the spill.

william.lambert

@hearstmediact.com

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Mill River sewage spill spurs closures of East Haven, Branford beaches - New Haven Register