[B]URLINGTON — Small yellow signs line the bike path by Burlington’s picturesque Oakledge Park, warning of pollutants lurking in the calm blue waters just before Memorial Day weekend.
The signs advise not to swim, boat or wade at Oakledge Park or Blanchard Beach for 48 hours due to an “unpermitted sewage discharge upstream of this public access area.” Blanchard Beach is the small beach on the north side of Oakledge Park.
The unpermitted pollution came from a sewage overflow Monday night at the intersection of Southwind and Oak Beach drives, near Flynn Avenue, according to a statement from Burlington’s Public Works Department. Sewage bubbled to the street level and a public works crew used an industrial sewer cleaner to remove as much of the sewage and other debris as possible.
Some of the sewage seeped into a stormwater drain that flows into constructed wetlands next to Lake Champlain. The discharge into the wetlands was estimated at 500 gallons or less. The Department of Public Works Water Resources team added lime to the water to help kill bacteria and closed nearby beaches for at least 48 hours, per state law.
The sewage overflow was caused by city contractors who were paving nearby and had accidentally knocked off a manhole cover. Asphalt and other debris then entered a sewer line, causing sewage to back up and eventually overflow.
The city says it will bill the contractor for the costs of cleanup and has reminded all of its contractors to notify the Department of Public Works if they think outside materials could have entered the city’s sewer system.
Chapin Spencer, director of Burlington’s Department of Public Works, said the beaches will be closed until water quality test results come back. The beaches can’t reopen until there’s less than 235 E. coli bacteria per 100 milliliters of water, per Vermont Department of Health’s recreational water standards.
David DiDomenico, an environmental analyst with Vermont’s Department of Environmental Conservation, said he was waiting on a report from the city of Burlington before evaluating if the state will take any enforcement actions for the unpermitted discharge.
