Osina Disputes City’s Handling of Sewer Spill In Schulenburg

The Schulenburg Public Works Department took some heat at the City Council meeting Monday night for its handling of a sewer plant spill back in April.

The accident happened on April 11. The City reported that approximately 250 gallons of “foam and solids” spilled out of the Babylon St. sewer plant and into a stream that enters the Navidad River southwest of town. At the time, one of the City’s experienced sewer plant operators was on medical leave. The City said the spill was due to a “shock load” from an industrial customer.

The incident forced the City to haul truckloads of sludge from the site nearly every day for a month. During the public comment period at Monday’s meeting, former City employee David Osina questioned the City’s account of the incident and its aftermath. Osina worked 13 years for the City and 11 of those were in the sewer department.

“This plant can handle all the industry in this town and then some,” Osina said. “This plant is not overloaded, and don’t let anybody make you think that. This plant has got plenty of room.”

Osina disputed City Operations Manager Darryl Moeller’s remarks at the last meeting about the costly sludge-hauling. At the May 16 meeting, Alderman Howard Stoner asked Moeller if it was standard for the City to haul 28 loads of sludge from the plant in a month. Moeller said it was not standard and blamed it on employees not draining the plant properly in the past.

Osina said he believes the shock load on April 11 was due to a “burst of water” from the industrial customer.

“I read that it was 250 gallons of sludge that leaked out,” Osina said. “This plant averages 0.225 million gallons per day of discharge. If you do the math on it, that means it overflowed for two minutes, roughly. They might make you believe that, but I don’t believe that.

“There’s no way that thing overflowed for just two minutes. That’s not real. You have a new operator, I understand that, he’s learning. You have an (operations manager) who knows nothing about that plant.”

Osina went on to criticize management in the public works department for losing multiple experienced employees in the last year.

Later in the meeting, Moeller addressed the problems at the Babylon plant.

“I do not know everything about that sewer plant, but in the last six or eight months, I’ve learned a whole lot,” Moeller said.

“I’ve got two guys down there with licenses and I sure trust them. We are doing the best we can. I trust what they’re doing.”

Stoner said the City averaged about 1.6 to 1.7 loads of sludge per week for the last four years.

“It was the same operator in charge in those other years,” Stoner said. “He went on sick leave, and all of a sudden we have a problem.”

Moeller said the sludgehauling operation has since tapered off to just seven loads in the past three weeks.