By Judy Reed

Russ Johnson, of Infrastructure Alternatives, reported to the Post that there was a 500-gallon spill last week of stabilized sludge out of a holding tank at Cedarfield Community, 3592 17 Mile Road, just west of US131. The company manages the community’s wastewater treatment system.

Johnson said the spill happened last Wednesday, August 19, in the fenced in area of the wastewater plant, and posed no threat. “There was no risk to groundwater or recreational streams,” emphasized Johnson. “It just makes your grass greener.”

He explained that the stabilized sludge is hauled away once a year in August by Synagro, and is then used to fertilize farmland. “We were hoping to get all the sludge into the tank before they hauled it away, and must have miscalculated how much it would hold,” he said.

Ryan’s Municipal Cleaning came in to clean up the spill, and what was left was limed.

Johnson said that they would be taking precautions to be sure that this type of incident would never happen again. “If we are transferring sludge, we’ll keep someone there the whole time to monitor it,” he said.