Overview
- A 42‑inch sewer force main near Haverhill’s South Mill Street Pump Station ruptured in two places during a storm, with the first break discovered the night of June 26 and city engineers estimating roughly 8 million to 10 million gallons of untreated wastewater entered the Merrimack River each day before the fix.
- Contractors installed a temporary 24‑inch bypass that officials say stopped the discharge by July 1 and crews are adding a second bypass and will run a camera through the pipe to inspect the breaks before deciding on permanent repairs.
- State and local water testing has cleared many North Shore beaches for swimming, including Ipswich, Salisbury and parts of Newburyport/Plum Island, but some beaches and shellfish growing areas remain closed pending additional consecutive clean tests.
- Officials continue to advise avoiding contact with the Merrimack River near Haverhill and downstream for at least 48 hours, and warn the temporary bypass cannot carry all combined flows during heavy rain, so overflows remain a risk until permanent work is complete.
- The failure highlights aging combined‑sewer infrastructure in Haverhill, which entered a 2016 consent‑decree process, and officials say permanent fixes will be costly and may take months, with funding and resilience upgrades now central questions for the region.