CARY MANAGER SAYS SWIFT CREEK ASSESSMENT INSUFFICIENT

Town to Hire Independent Analyst

CARY, NC – The Town of Cary will hire an independent third party to conduct a second assessment of recent events at the Town of Cary’s Swift Creek Regional Pump Station since findings issued today by the project’s engineering firm, Black & Veatch, fell short of Town Manager Bill Coleman’s expectations.  Black & Veatch’s assessment was to have detailed the events leading up to the dislodgement of a pump station pipe on June 23, the Town and private contractors’ responses to the emergency, and recommendations on how to better handle similar situations should they arise in the future.  After reviewing the document, Coleman felt that while it was a good start, several issues would benefit from further analysis from a different perspective.

“The assessment was to provide the Town with an honest, accurate, detailed, and complete evaluation of the event, and it did not,” said Coleman.

Among Coleman’s specific concerns were insufficient specificity as to the cause of the pipe becoming dislodged and a lack of context for several actions and events.  He also felt that the recommendations were relatively generic.

“The bottom line is that we don’t have confidence that the assessment provided a full picture of what happened,” said Coleman.

While Coleman could not offer an exact timetable for the second analysis, he stressed that the issue remains one of his top priorities and would be resolved as soon as possible, likely within the next 60 days.  He added that despite the assessment having fallen short of expectations, Black & Veatch would continue on the project team to expand the pump station.

In August 2005, the Town of Cary began the planned expansion of its Swift Creek Regional Pump Station at 7800 Holly Springs Road .  The Town hired a contracting firm –Laughlin-Sutton– to handle the construction and an engineering firm –Black & Veatch– to oversee the project on the Town’s behalf.   Both were well-respected, highly qualified companies.

As part of the expansion, the contractor excavated a large area near the existing pump station.  Heavy rains from severe thunderstorms on June 23 filled the hole, a soil embankment collapsed, and a pipe critical to the station’s operations was dislodged.  In order to repair the pipe, workers had to shut down the pump station, after which the sewage normally moving through the station began going into Swift Creek. 

Initial attempts to reposition the pipe failed, and on June 24, crews were able to implement an extensive, around-the-clock pump and haul operation to help keep sewage from overflowing into the creek.  The pump and haul operation, which included up to 20 6,500-gallon tanker trucks, continued for more than 100 hours until June 28 when workers were able to activate a temporary, onsite bypass pumping operation that completely replaced the work normally done by the disabled Swift Creek station.  

During the five days between the pump station’s idling and the activation of the onsite bypass, Cary estimated that as much as 7.9-million gallons of untreated waste—or about 32% of the station’s average flow for a 5-day period—probably made its way into Swift Creek.  No fish kill was observed, but the situation closed several downstream lakes as well as Holly Springs Road for a time.

Each year, the Town of Cary processes about 4.4 billion gallons of wastewater for Cary , Morrisville, RDU, and the southern portion of the Research Triangle Park .

###