Spokane hit with $6,000 fine for sewage spill during accident

The Washington Department of Ecology has fined the city of Spokane $6,000 for the release of sewage sludge into the Spokane River during last year’s fatal accident at the city’s wastewater treatment plant.

The fine was levied not only because of the discharge of thousands of gallons of sludge on May 10, 2004, but also because the city had not provided updates on the plant’s operations and maintenance manual as required under the plant’s discharge permit, officials said in a news release Thursday. Updates are required annually.

Since the accident, the city has worked to rectify those lapses, said Jim Bellatty, water quality manager for the Ecology department in Spokane.

Maintenance worker Mike Cmos Jr. was killed and three other workers were injured when the roof on sludge digester No. 3 violently separated from its walls, allowing as much as 30,000 gallons of sludge to spill from the 2 million gallon tank along Aubrey L. White Parkway. The roof broke apart and dropped into the tank. Cmos was trapped on the roof where he had gone to contain spilling sludge.

Investigations later determined that the tank was overfilled and that a computerized monitoring system was malfunctioning at the time. Also, the state Department of Labor and Industries fined the city $22,000 for failures in overall supervision, including inadequate written procedures, hazard analyses, operating manuals and training regimens.

The city has 30 days to appeal the fine by the Ecology department.

Roger Flint, city director of public works and utilities, said the city was not surprised by the fine.