Wastewater workers prevented sewage disaster during October flood

More than 150 million gallons of sewage were surging into the Columbia wastewater treatment plant, and a nearby dike was threatening to break at the height of the city’s historic flooding disaster last October.

The plant workers were told to shut down the plant and evacuate, but five men voluntarily stayed behind to ensure the filthy deluge of wastewater would not contaminate the Congaree River and, ultimately, the city’s drinking water.

“We decided we weren’t going to let that happen,” said Adrian Martin, one of the plant’s chief operators.

Martin and three other staffers of the City of Columbia Metro wastewater treatment plant were recognized for heroic actions that prevented an even larger catastrophe from hitting the city during the October 2015 flood.

Martin, Ashley Dove, James Foust and Brandon Wilcox were awarded the 2016 Water Heroes Award by the Water Environment Federation (WEF) for actions that saved the city and the Congaree from an influx of raw sewage in the midst of the flooding disaster. A fifth man, private contractor Kim Hinson, stayed behind with them.

The historic rainfall and flood stressed city infrastructure beyond the breaking point in many instances.

Rising water stranded the five at the plant after they decided not to evacuate. Even the National Guard’s highwater vehicles could not make it past the water that covered the entrance road to the plant, which sits off I-77 near Heathwood Hall Episcopal School.

As water lines burst, roads buckled, and many bridges became unsafe to drive on, the wastewater staff managed sewage that was flowing in at nearly three times the rate the plant was designed to handle.

At one point, the team managed an influx of 156 million gallons in one day – in a plant that’s rated for 60 million gallons per day.

Had the plant shut down, millions of gallons of sewage almost certainly would have overflowed and contaminated the Congaree, Dove said.

“It’s pretty miraculous” that no sewage spilled into the river and that the plant continued to operate far beyond what it was designed for, Dove said.

“This award is great and fine, but it took our whole team” to manage the aftermath of the flood for the next week or more, Dove said.

When the stranded crew finally left after working more than two days on end, they would be back for 48-hour shifts later in the week as the entire plant staff worked to keep the wastewater plant under control.

“Anyone who’s ever gotten into the wastewater business, we don’t do it for money,” Martin said. “We do this because we’re all environmentalists at heart. ... We’re protecting the environment every single day.”

This story was originally published July 20, 2016 at 6:01 PM with the headline "Wastewater workers prevented sewage disaster during October flood."