UPDATE: Test results returned do not trigger an advisory against swimming or fishing in the Lake Madeline channel.
*ADVISORY* A sanitary sewer line break caused a sewage overflow into the Lake Madeline channel near 74th Street and Heards Lane. No waste is going into the channel at this time, and the contractor and city crews are working to identify where the break occurred.
The City of Galveston does not have information at this time about how much waste might have been released. We will provide further information as it is known.
The City of Galveston has notified the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality about the incident and filed a notice of violation. Upstream and downstream lab samples have been taken. There is also testing underway for the fecal count, biological oxygen demand, and total suspended solids, as well as dissolved oxygen and PH samples. These samples are expected to take three to five days for results to be returned.
A contractor working on the Heards Lane water line project over the weekend hit a sanitary sewer line. The break was not immediately evident. Once the break was known, city crews were able to divert sewage to another line, which has stopped the overflow into the channel. This diversion will continue until the break has been identified and fixed.
The public should not swim or fish in the Lake Madeline channel until further notice. The sewer spill was directly behind the Island Bay Resort apartment complex near the parking lot where Heards Lane ends.