The city of Jackson has posted a sign at the 1800 block of Meadowbrook Road alerting residents of a sewer overflow and that bodily contact with the water should be avoided.
“Raw sewage is going directly into Eastover Creek, which runs through a section of Eastover and into the Pearl River,” said Abby Braman, executive director of Pearl Riverkeeper, a nonprofit that focuses on the Pearl River watershed.
“Anybody who lives along Eastover Creek, which is quite a number of homes, should be aware that they shouldn’t make any contact with the water and neither should their pets.”
Walking and wading in the polluted water could cause gastrointestinal issues, she said.
The collapsed sewer line at the 1800 block of both Meadowbrook Road and Parkridge Drive is one of the largest ongoing sewer leaks in the city. The Parkridge Drive location is not marked by a sign, Braman said.
The failed sewer line has released 35.3 million gallons of untreated sewage into Eastover Creek in the last year, including 3.3 million gallons released in the last three months, Braman said.
“It’s an extremely aggressive sewage spill,” she said, noting that the amount of sewage released from that failed sewer line from April through June would fill about seven Olympic-size swimming pools.
The spill caught the attention of Pearl Riverkeeper, Braman said, because it is one of the only spills entering the Pearl River upstream of the intake at the J.H. Fewell Water Treatment Plant, which is one of two water treatment plants for the city of Jackson.
Pearl Riverkeeper has contacted the city of Jackson, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and Environmental Protection Agency about the spill, she said.
Braman, who organized the first Pearl River Clean Sweep event that deployed river cleanup teams along the entire length of the Pearl River six years ago, said the next Pearl River Clean Sweep is scheduled Sept. 17.
“We have 25 different locations where people can volunteer either on water or land,” she said.
