Gentry Estates pond contaminated with sewage by fiber-optic installation

When Bloomington resident Mark Combs took his lab-mix Luna for a walk on the east side recently, he noticed dead fish floating on the surface of a neighborhood pond.

Only days earlier, Combs had notified Bloomington City Utilities of sewage gurgling out of a drain a couple of blocks away.

Combs got worried and suspected the sewage had contaminated the water. People in the Gentry Estates community take their kids to the pond, which is part of a neighborhood park, with a basketball court, swimming pool and a second pond. Some kids fish in the ponds.

“They take a fish off the hook. Then they grab a snack and put their fingers in their mouth,” Combs said.

He said he was impressed with the City of Bloomington Utilities’ initial response to the sewage leak. He had left the utility a voicemail in the evening, and a crew of nine workers with eight pieces of equipment showed up the next morning and repaired the pipe on Nov. 9.

The city of Bloomington said in a news release that fiber-optic contractor AEG struck a sewage pipe this summer, “but apparently there was no indication of a leak at the time.”

A few days after the initial repair, Combs noticed the dead fish in the north pond and contacted city officials again.

Holly McLauchlin, a CBU spokeswoman, said via email the damaged pipe discharged into the retention pond near the intersection of East Gentry Boulevard and Ind. 446, and that testing on Nov. 13 indicated the concentration of E.coli bacteria in the north pond exceeded 24,000 units per 100 milliliters. That's a concentration about 100 times greater than the state water quality standard of 250 CFU per 100 ml.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, E.coli are bacteria found in the environment, foods, and intestines of people and animals. While most strains are harmless, others can cause illnesses including diarrhea, urinary tract infections and pneumonia.

The city said the leak last month caused an “indeterminate quantity” of sewage to flow into the pond and killed 25 to 50 small fish.

Utility removed water, resident remains skeptical

A spokeswoman for the mayor’s office said the city reported the sewer overflow to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. The state agency said via email that it receives hundreds of such reports per year but could not yet compare the Bloomington event to the others because it did not know the full extent of the Bloomington overflow.

Angela Van Rooy, interim communications manager for the office of Mayor John Hamilton, said the utility worked with the Gentry Estates Homeowners Association and Todd’s Septic, a septic contractor, to remove about 55,000 gallons of water from the pond and to add 1,500 gallons of chlorinated water.

“Along with recent rain, this has reduced the E.coli level in this pond and prevented spreading E.coli downstream,” van Rooy said via email.

“CBU also spread powder chlorine around the edges of the pond. CBU continues to test and will treat until E.coli levels are within Indiana state limits for swimming pools,” she said.

McLauchlin said the E.coli concentration on Nov. 22 was 52 CFU in the north pond, significantly below the state standard.

Combs said he was not convinced. He said he hasn’t seen any documentation and he has been only told about the numbers — though he acknowledged he has no water quality expertise.

“I’m a little skeptical that it worked that well, that fast,” he said.

Combs said he has a background in the trucking industry, and whenever a company has a fuel spill, clean up is done right away because once the material enters the waterway, problems get significantly worse.

"To me there was no sense of urgency," he said.

Combs put up a sign at the pond to warn people about the sewage contamination and dead fish.

“Somebody has to step up,” he said. “I’m retired. I have the time."

Bloomington utility invoiced six companies for damage in 2023

McLauchlin said via email the CBU has invoiced six companies so far this year for reimbursement for damaged infrastructure, with bills ranging from $500 to $10,000. That tally excludes the November sewage spill. McLauchlin said the utility sometimes also gets reimbursed by insurance.

A Bloomington resident said early this year that he suffered sewage backing up into his sinks, putrid smells and thousands of dollars in repair bills after a fiber optic cable contractor damaged his sewer lines.

Putrid smell: Bloomington resident says $10,000 in sewer line damage caused by fiber installation

Representatives for the city of Bloomington said at the time the number of fiber optic contractors damaging infrastructure was higher than normal because so many companies, including Smithville, AT&T and GigaBitNow, were doing work here.

The city said Bloomington has a municipal separate stormwater system, “designed to prevent sanitary sewer water from entering the stormwater system and prevent stormwater from being sent to the wastewater treatment plants.

“Anything that flows into the storm drains will eventually end up in local ponds and creeks, and eventually to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico,” the city said. “Any unusual water flowing or standing unrelated to a rain event could indicate a main break and should be reported to CBU at 812-339-1444.”

Boris Ladwig can be reached at bladwig@heraldt.com.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Eastside Bloomington pond fouled with sewage by AEG contractor