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Ground shift causes sewage spill in park By MICHAEL MILSTEIN Gazette Wyoming Bureau YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK - Shifting ground snapped a sewage pipe in Yellowstone National Park sometime in the last few days, loosing several thousand gallons of raw sewage into a meadow near the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. None of the sewage reached the Yellowstone River or any other streams in the area, Chief of Maintenance Tim Hudson said. The broken sewage line carries sewage from restrooms at the Uncle Tom's Trail parking lot between the Upper and Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River downhill to a pump station that sends it on toward a sewage treatment plant. Along the way, the line runs through an unstable section of ground that has gradually slumped and finally broke the line, Hudson said. Park workers don't know exactly when the line broke, but a park researcher Friday noticed sewage overflowing from a manhole because the break in the underground line caused it to become plugged with dirt. Sewage flowed about 50 to 100 yards downhill from the manhole. A lesser amount of sewage seeped out of the ground at the site of the break. Maintenance workers were trying to determine from pump readings exactly how much sewage spilled, but Hudson estimated the spill at more than 1,000 gallons. A park press release put the figure at "several thousand gallons." The line that broke was installed in the early 1970s, making it "one of our newer lines," Hudson said. As soon as the break was reported, maintenance workers shut down the restrooms feeding the line and next week will replace the broken section with plastic pipe made of shorter segments that can better adjust to shifts in the surrounding ground, he said. Temporary restrooms will be set up at the Uncle Tom's Trail parking area to accommodate visitors during the holiday weekend. Park officials reported the spill to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, which regulates water quality in the state. But because the sewage did not reach any streams or lakes, it's unlikely the state will take any action against the park for it. State officials issued the National Park Service a Notice of Violation for four sewage spills in Yellowstone Park last year and are still determining whether to cite the park for siphoning treated sewage into a meadow near Fishing Bridge last month to keep a sewage lagoon from overflowing.
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