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• Edgy Veggie

DIA sewage spill of 1m gallons may head for Barr Lake

The largest airport in the country, with the “greenest” parking lot, is in a bit of environmental trouble: a DIA raw sewage spill may have sent a million gallons of disgusting into waterways that can feed into the Barr Lake fishery and bird sanctuary (enjoy that, bald eagles).

A DIA sewage spill sent a lot of gross out into the world -- where will it land? | flickr user luschei

The Denver Post reports on the DIA sewage spill:

The release from the sewer lift station fed the contaminated water into Third Creek, which flows into a canal that meanders via irrigation canals to Barr Lake, about seven miles northwest of the airport.

The spill appears to have started about 7 p.m. Tuesday when a pump malfunctioned, DIA spokesman Jeff Green said. The cause is unclear. Maintenance crews made the discovery Wednesday morning.

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Apparently it doesn’t look as if the spill has actually gotten to Barr Lake yet, and 9News reports that if things are headed that way, officials will dam or divert Third Creek.

Oh — and nobody noticed the DIA sewage spill for 12 hours.

“We do have backup alarms to notify the airport when this is happening,” said Jeff Green, DIA spokesman. “We have every indication that that alarm worked properly, but it went unnoticed. We are investigating how that happened.”

Green said the alarm sounds in the maintenance facility which is manned 24 hours a day.

Of course, this isn’t the first time DIA’s had trouble with spilling nasty stuff out into the world, as the Post says:

Third Creek has been the focus of environmental concerns for DIA for at least 13 years, however, as de-icing fluids reached the creek numerous times despite a $14 million high-tech system the airport installed in 1997.

In 1998, about 4 million gallons of water tainted with 4,000 gallons of de-icer spilled into the creek.

In 2001, 1 million gallons of runoff contaminated with de-icing fluid was released from a storage pond into Third Creek and killed fish in a 25-mile irrigation canal.

Some neighbors!

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