A fire at a Salt Lake Valley sewage plant forced more than a million gallons of raw sewage into the Jordan River this morning.
For two hours raw sewage bypassed the plant and ran into the river.
The Department of Environmental Quality issued a health warning and told everyone to stay away from the Jordan River from Mill Creek all the way to the Great Salt Lake.
Sewage is no longer dumping into the river.
The plant is opertating again after an electrical fire blew out the power and shut down the system.
At about 7 am an electrical explosion sparked the problem.
During the storm last night the plant switched from Utah Power to its own power as a precaution.
When the plant was switching back to Utah Power this morning a capiciter blew up.
A capaciter levels out the flow of electricity.
As a result the pumps shut down and raw sewage was diverted into the river.
The Department of Environmental Quality says the plant did a great job getting back on line despite the magnitude of this problem.
For two hours, 1 and a half million gallons of raw sewage went into the river.
The DEQ says people should stay out of the water for a few hours while the sewage settles and becomes diluted.
This facility is the largest of three that treat raw sewage in the valley.
This is the first time in more than a decade that the plant has been forced to dump raw sewage into the river.
Had it gone on much longer there could have been a grater public health concern.
Link: Dept. of Water Quality
