A major sewage spill has prompted Anne Arundel County health officials to close Marley Creek in Glen Burnie to direct water activities such as swimming and waterskiing.
The Anne Arundel County Department of Health announced the closure on Wednesday. It affects the portion of Marley Creek between Brewers Island and Marley Creek Drive. The action will remain in effect until tests shows water quality conditions are acceptable, according to a county news release.
The source of the spill was a pumping station owned and managed by Gatewater Landing, an apartment complex. A resident noticed the spill and contacted the health department, said Don Curtian, director of environmental health.
“By the time we got out there, the overflow had stopped,” he said. “So, we don’t know what made the pump fail, but it is operating.”
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The management company didn’t know how long the pumping station was out of operation, so the health department doesn’t know how many gallons leaked into the creek, he said.
A representative of the Gatewater Landing apartments complex declined to comment.
The creek will reopen in about a week, Curtian said.
Last September, a pump failure at the same apartment complex led to a sewage spill estimated at more than 10,000 gallons, according to the county’s website. Officials imposed an emergency closure for the same stretch of Marley Creek, then extended it several times through mid-December.
“The pump that was there was not operating,” Curtian said.
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The county filed an injunction against the apartment complex in February to get it to make the necessary repairs and replace the defective water pump.
The apartment complex owner installed a new pump and did some electrical work to ensure the circuit breaker was not going off, Curtian said.
The complex was also ordered to pay a fine of $24,125, he said.
In the meantime, county officials said, individuals who come into contact with water from the creek are advised to wash with soap and warm water immediately and to wash their clothing as well.
The county’s website notes that there are always risks associated with swimming in natural bodies of water, which contain bacteria, viruses and other harmful microorganisms. This can cause a health problem if some enter the body through open cuts or scrapes.
For more information, contact the department’s Recreational Water Quality Monitoring Program at 410-222-7999 or visit AAHealth.org/rec-water.
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