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A case of mistaken identity resulted in 1.1 million gallons of raw sewage flowing into a Raleigh creek last week.

The spill happened in two stages: first, a sewage bypass line built to circumvent the Raleigh-Durham Airport expansion construction failed and was cleaned up by the contractor.

“That was problem No. 1. Problem No. 2 was the City of Raleigh instructed the contractor to dispose of the waste in a sewer manhole, like they were supposed to,” said Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop. “They vacuumed up the initial spill and transported it to a separate part of town, east of where the initial spill happened, and accidently discharged that into a stormwater drain that led to Turkey Creek. It’s hard to conceive of how this happened, but they did it.”

It was social media posts by community members that alerted the City of Raleigh to the spill.

“The initial spill happened on Wednesday, and it was reported on Thursday,” Samantha said. “Community members submitted photos to the Raleigh Downtown Instagram account that depicted certainly the grossest sewage spill I’ve ever seen. Then that got a lot of attention and eventually someone reported it to the City. Somewhere in that process, Sound Rivers was tagged on the Downtown Raleigh account. From there, I immediately started calling around.”

After speaking with Raleigh Water staff, Samantha and Volunteer Coordinator Emily Fritz went out to the spill site on Turkey Creek, directly south of Glenwood Avenue, to collect water samples.

“When we went out there, there was no mistaking we were in the right place. It smelled really strongly of sewage, and the creek itself was gray — a really sad, polluted gray,” Samantha said. “It was immediately clear this was a dire mistake.”

Samantha and Emily collected three samples: one at the spill site; a second a little more than half a mile downstream; and the third at the confluence of Turkey and Crabtree creeks.

“Our samples came back very high in E. coli in Turkey Creek — no surprise there,” Samantha said.

While collecting samples, they spotted City of Raleigh employees at several locations using hoses to flush out the creek, an incongruous sight considering ongoing drought conditions, mandatory water restrictions in place since mid-April and that the levels of Falls Lake, a major water source for Raleigh, continue to drop.

“In speaking with the Raleigh Water staff, that was a calculation they had to make,” Samantha said. “This was a dry-weather spill which is way worse than a wet-weather spill because there’s no dilution. It’s just pure sewage impacting about a mile and half of Turkey Creek. It needed to be flushed out. They claimed they stopped the sewage before it reached Crabtree Creek, and our samples from Crabtree Creek seemed to reflect that because they came back very low.”

The City of Raleigh wrapped up the cleanup of Turkey Creek on Wednesday, in advance of a week’s-worth of predicted rain.

Sound Rivers will collect a second round of samples at the beginning of next week. Though North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality employees were at the site collecting their own samples after the initial spill, they have not shared their results.

“DEQ has not released its sampling data to anyone, and Raleigh didn’t send anyone out to sample because DEQ was doing it,” Samantha said. “So, all we have to go on, sample-wise, is our first round of samples that indicated really high E. coli.”

According to Samantha, the City of Raleigh is drawing up a notice of violation for the contractor, in addition to fines to cover the cost of the cleanup.

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