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Waco: partially treated wastewater surges from sewerage system due to heavy rains, power outage

The city says the overflows are expected to be contained soon.

WACO, Texas — Editor's Note: The attached video aired on April 28.

The rains that have drenched Central Texas are causing more problems for cities like Waco, which reported Friday morning that a power outage due to a surge in power line voltage has caused nearly 3.5 million gallons of total wastewater to overflow.

City officials say around 9 a.m., the Waco Metropolitan Area Regional Sewerage System (WMARSS) had their main treatment plant breaker trip from an electrical surge, causing the which knocked the system offline. At the time, both backup generators at the plant could not kick in to maintain power, as one was down for maintenance and the other was unavailable due to burned electronics--likely from a power surge or lightning strike.

The overflow lasted roughly 10 minutes, with plant workers able to switch power sources to a rented source for the lift station. About an hour after, at 10:10 a.m., Oncor staff arrived on site to restore power, with operations back and running by 11:15 a.m.

During the roughly two-hour period the station experienced the power outage, the city says approximately 3.225 million gallons of partially treated wastewater were discharged into the Brazos River.

The city says that the overflows are expected to be contained soon.

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