WEST HAVEN -- Water treatment officials in West Haven are busy correcting a sewage problem that they hope has not impacted residents, fisherman and even birds.
Police and the Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) have been on site 24/7 where Old Field Creek flows beneath Blohm St. since a pretty smelly find was made last week.
For almost a week, the WPCA has been forced to reroute raw human sewage, which was discovered to be emptying into Old Field Creek.
"We attempted to address it and the fix that we put in and unfortunately failed," said Jack Crosby, superintendent of the West Haven Water Pollution Control Authority.
A faulty pipe, beneath the Blohm St. bridge, which is just upstream from Morse Beach, was the culprit.
"We were talking about 10,000 gallons," Crosby said.
But, that's just his best guess. The problem first came to the attention of the environmental group Save the Sound, who tested the water last Tuesday.
"I believe upstream it registered about 800, which is the amount of bacteria in the water and downstream, it was around 24,000," Bill Lucey, who is the Soundkeeper for Save the Sound.
That's 233 times the legal limit for swimming. The city claims bacteria levels were in normal range during the same time frame.
Lucey said he first received reports of sewage smells in the vicinity of the creek a year ago.
"It could’ve been pumping this much sewage into the stream for the whole year," Lucey said. "We are just not sure."
"I wish someone had reached out to me prior to this and said 'Jack we have a problem here. We have a problem there.' Because, if they had done that, we would’ve responded immediately," said Crosby, who has been on the job for roughly two years.
Old Field Creek flows through a bird sanctuary before emptying into Long Island Sound.
"I fear for the wading birds that are in here," said Georgianna Jette, a lifelong West Haven resident. "We have a lot of egrets, American oyster-catchers, all kinds of birds in here."
Fisherman are concerned as well.
"Every fish that I catch if it’s a good size it’s good for eating, but, if there is a sewage spill like that, it's no good for eating," said Emilio Lopez of Wolcott, who fishes near the creek roughly once a week.
But the city says, since bypassing the faulty pipe, no sewage has ended up in the creek since last Friday. And, by the end of the day Thursday, the faulty 14 foot section of piping will be replaced.