UPDATE: Shortly before noon Saturday, the City of Kalamazoo issued the following update:
"The City of Kalamazoo Department of Public Services in cooperation with the Kalamazoo County Health and Community Services Department is lifting the previously issued no contact advisory for the Kalamazoo River from the Paterson Street bridge in the City of Kalamazoo to the D Avenue bridge in Cooper Township.
Samples taken from the Kalamazoo River at the Paterson Street bridge and the Mosel Street bridge show that bacteria levels within the Kalamazoo River remain below surface water quality standards for recreational contact.
All recreational activities within the Kalamazoo River are safe to resume. Please continue to follow previously issued Fish Consumption Advisories as issued by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services for the Kalamazoo River. Please follow this link [michigan.gov] for more information."
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The public is advised to avoid touching the water in the Kalamazoo River after 1.5 million gallons of partially treated wastewater was discharged late Thursday night.
Kalamazoo officials say the Department of Public Services (DPS) was alerted to the problem before 10:40 p.m. on July 13. The disinfection feed system, the source of the problem, was fixed before midnight.
"From 10:38 p.m. to 11:56 p.m., there was approximately 1.56 million gallons of flow that continued to go through that cooling contact chamber, but without chlorine for disinfection," Public Service Director and City Engineer James Baker explained. "There was a bit of a high pressure shutdown, potentially caused by some electrical issues."
We’re told the advisory impacts the portion of the river that runs between the Paterson Street Bridge and Cooper Township's D Avenue Bridge.
The advisory will be lifted once testing determines health risk is minimal.
"Folks should not be drinking water out of the Kalamazoo River, so there shouldn't be ingestion happening anyway. But, you know, the risk of having that on your body could increase the amount of bacteria that you're exposing yourself to including dangerous pathogenic bacteria," Baker said.
He adds that while people and pets should stay away, the water did go through every other treatment process except the final steps involving chlorine, so there is no environmental concern.
"We started doing testing [Friday] morning. Those tests take 24 hours to come back. We're going to be doing testing throughout the weekend. We want to make sure that the bacteria levels in the river haven't risen to levels that would be of concern," Baker added.
Samples collected Friday will be ready for review Saturday, July 15, city officials say.
The city already added real time alarms that will go off as soon as the pumps stop working, to make sure this doesn't happen again.
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) has been informed of the discharge.
Those with questions are instructed to call DPS at 269-337-8768.
READ MORE: No contact advisory issued after 500K gallons of wastewater empties into St. Joseph River
