Overview
- Two breaks in a 42-inch force main at Haverhill’s South Mill Street pump station during heavy rain have produced an ongoing sanitary sewer overflow into the Merrimack River.
- City officials estimate roughly 8 to 10 million gallons of untreated wastewater are entering the river each day, a figure based on recent pump-station flows.
- Multiple North Shore beaches and downstream shellfish beds in Newburyport, Ipswich and Salisbury have been closed to swimming and harvesting while state and local agencies conduct water-quality testing.
- Crews have mobilized about 2,000 feet of bypass pipe and are working 24/7 to install temporary pipelines to route wastewater to the Haverhill treatment plant, with officials saying a bypass could be operational within days if no further storms hit.
- The city says drinking water is separate and unaffected, officials point to aging 1970s-era sewer infrastructure as a likely factor, and local businesses and shellfish operators report lost revenue and halted operations during the holiday heat wave.