Sludge Watch ==> Massachusetts - Its a shit storm, Randy

[Maureen Reilly]

August 15, 2007
Crappy Day at Work, or, Shit Storm

Yesterday a couple of Massachusetts Water Resource Authority workers at Deer 
Island took a shower in shit. Literally. When the two workers popped off a 
valve to do some routine maintenance about 100 gallons of "return sludge" 
coated them. So it's really mostly treated sewage, but still wicked nasty. 
Anyone know if Aquafina is using return sludge in their process? To put it 
into perspective, if you're a ten minute shower kind of person you can think 
of it that way – most showers pump out 5 gallons a minute, split the 100 
gallons between two (we've got no idea if they were coated evenly or not) 
and it's like they got about a 10 minute shower of sludge, each.

The employees were decontaminated on site and them taken to the hospital. 
Both were treated and released by mid-afternoon yesterday. Word from the 
MWRA is that at least one of the guys even showed up for work this morning. 
Mike Rowe has only been knee deep in sludge once, and he wasn't bathing in 
it, the MWRA guys do it day in and day out. We're giving a point to the MWRA 
workers but we're taking away points from the Herald for disappointing their 
readers – with such obvious puns to make the headline deliciously stinky 
they lamed out and went with the tame "Workers swamped in sludge when pipe 
explodes.

Image from the MWRA on "How the Sewer System Works." If you look closely 
there is one left pointing arrow – likely the point of return sludge.

http://bostonist.com/2007/08/15/crappy_day_at_w.php

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Two Deer Island workers drenched in dozens of gallons of sewage
By Associated Press
Tuesday, August 14, 2007 - Updated: 01:34 PM EST

BOSTON - Two workers at Boston’s Deer Island sewage treatment plant were 
drenched in about 100 gallons of sewage when a pocket of pressure pushed 
sludge into an area where they were doing routine maintenance.
    The employees were quickly decontaminated and taken to a hospital, but 
did not suffer any serious injuries.
    Massachusetts Water Resources Authority spokeswoman Ria Convery says a 
pocket of pressure developed in a unit of the plant that was off line and 
supposedly to be empty. Instead sewage was pushed out onto the workers.
    She says it’s not yet clear whether the pressure came from air or water 
in the system.
    The Deer Island Sewage Treatment Plant handles about 350 million gallons 
of waste water from 43 communities in greater Boston. It’s the second 
largest treatment plant in the country.