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3.5 Million Gallons Of Sewage Flows Into Mississippi Near St. Louis

(Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District)

Another 3.5 million gallons of untreated wastewater discharged into the Mississippi River on Wednesday.

The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District says that a power outage at the Bissell Point Wastewater Treatment Plant caused the discharge. Bissell Point was also the location of another sewage discharge situation in April.

In that two-day event, sewage was flowing into the river at a rate of 105 million gallons per day at its onset.

Even at that rate, MSD spokesperson Lance LaComb said the risk to public health was low.

In a statement, MSD calls the incident Wednesday "unacceptable" and says they have reported it to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources as is required.