NEWBURYPORT — Officials believe disks released in an overflow accident at the Hooksett, N.H., sewer treatment plant on March 7 have now washed up on a 300-mile expanse of New England shoreline.
The white plastic disks, used to help filter waste, have turned up on the sandy beaches of Rye and Hampton, N.H., in the marsh and tidal areas of Ipswich Sound, and on Wingaersheek Beach in Gloucester, and most recently have invaded the beaches of Cape Cod. And there's every expectation they will keep turning up for months to come, according to experts who traveled to Newburyport yesterday to brief municipal leaders and environmental groups from across the region on the estimated 4.24 million disks released from the Hooksett wastewater system.
Dick Chalpin of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, who took part in the regional briefing session, said the disks were recently discovered along the stretch of pristine coastline known as Coast Guard Beach, located in the heart of the federally designated Cape Cod National Seashore.
"They're traveling well, these disks," he said.
While efforts by cleanup crew Enpro Services, which was hired by Hooksett, and a host of public services departments and volunteer environmental groups across the region have managed to dispose of a majority of the released disks, they say there are still more than 1.5 million of them left out there.
"We're estimating 2.5 million disks have been recovered," said Enpro spokesman Geoffrey Brown, who also took part in the briefing.
If there is a spot of good news regarding the disks, it's that ongoing testing still shows only a small percentage contains limited amounts of bacteria — typical of the levels of bacteria any other type of beach litter would contain, Chalpin said.
"It's no worse than any beach litter that is out there," Chalpin said. "It's essentially a massive amount of litter wandering about."
That litter has likely washed ashore in areas Enpro and municipalities have yet to discover, like on the privately-owned Woodbridge Island near the mouth of the Merrimack River. Local cleanup efforts involving the Blue Ocean Society, the Parker River Natural Wildlife Refuge and others have already collected 1 million disks from the river banks and 250,000 disks from the Merrimack, but it's places like the deserted Woodbridge and private beaches across Massachusetts and New Hampshire that will need to be monitored, Brown said.
Enpro and Hooksett officials are operating a reconnaissance and recovery effort in 85 locations along the seacoast and 50 locations along the Merrimack River.
"There are definitely still some left," Brown said.
Mike Wimsatt of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services advised that since some disks have come back showing low levels of contamination, people handling the disks should continue following guidelines set up for the cleanup, which suggested anyone handling them should use gloves and wash their hands for 20 seconds following exposure.
The Kruger Biofilm chips, which are used to attract and then consume human waste bacteria, are made from polyethylene or polypropylene, durable materials environmentalists expect to take a long while to break down, Wimsatt said. And in the meantime, they will likely be showing up on beaches as they travel with the tide and surf. Hooksett Emergency Management director Dan Pike, who was on hand yesterday to answer questions relative to the accidental spill, said residents can expect to get a full accounting of what happened in writing when the majority of the disks have been recovered. To the lingering questions in people's minds on whether such a release will happen again, he offered no guarantees.
"The answer is, probably not," Pike said. "But I can envision a scenario where it would happen again."
The Hooksett wastewater treatment plant is rated to handle between 1.1 million and 1.2 million gallons of sewage, Pike said. On the evenings of March 6 and 7, he said, the center showed levels of 1.5 million to 1.6 million entering the system. But he believes it was actually 1.9 million gallons that ultimately funneled through and caused the system to back up and overflow.
"The plant was simply overwhelmed," he said.
But it wasn't just Mother Nature that proved a factor in overwhelming the system. Pike factored in some possible areas where human error may have entered the equation, citing the storage of snow in an area that may not have been ideal, the fact that alarms — though ordered — had not yet been installed at the plant to notify workers of a problem and the fact that Hooksett's new system is not yet 100 percent online.
When it is, the system will be able to handle approximately 2.5 million gallons of sewage and wastewater, he said.
And though the town plans to fully pay for the cleanup, it will be difficult for them to do so, and he urged affected communities to be patient.
"This is going to be expensive," Pike said. "Hooksett is a small community. And like other municipalities, it's been impacted by the bad economy. We know this is going to cost $1.5 to $2 million — maybe higher. That's a difficult burden for the town to bear. It's just not going to be easy."
NJ Man Charged With Murder in Death of Patz
Support, Fun for Kids of Fallen Soldiers at Camp
Fugitive Penguin Caught, Returned to Aquarium
50 Years Later, Underground Fire Still Burning
Light Show Transforms Sydney Opera House
Raw Video: Unruly Passenger Restrained in Miami
Raw Video: Robber Uses Drive-thru Window
Raw Video: Dragon Arrives at Space Station
Calif.'s Coronado Named Nation's Best Beach
CEO Salaries Become Sore Issue in Labor Disputes
Raw Video: Fight Erupts in Ukrainian Parliament
Texan Ranchers Remain Wary of Drought
Raw Video: Soldiers Plant Flags at Arlington
Police: Man Arrested in Etan Patz Disappearance
NYC Protests: the Revolution Will Be Scripted
Chicago U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald Resigns
Neighbors of Etan Patz's Suspect: It's Shocking
Gulf Fishermen Reel From Seafood Troubles
Stuntman Makes Skydive Without Parachute in UK
Raw Video: Bride Who Faked Cancer Released
