WORCESTER – Residents can now sign up for alerts when untreated or partially untreated sewage or waste spills into Worcester’s recreational waters.
To sign up for sewer system overflow email notifications, click here.
Within two hours of a combined sewer overflow (CSO) or certain sanitary sewer overflows (SSO), an email will be sent advising of the date, time and location of the overflow. Follow-up notifications will be emailed every eight hours until the overflow stops.
Notifications will be provided in English, Spanish and Vietnamese. To see the most recent notification, click here.
The city’s sanitary sewer system sends sewage from homes and businesses to the Upper Blackstone wastewater treatment plant. The stormwater system collects rainfall from city streets and pipes it to the nearest waterway. The CSO collects both the sewage and stormwater and sends it to the Upper Blackstone plant for treatment before it discharges to the Blackstone River.
CSOs only occur at one location and enter the Blackstone River directly behind the Walmart Supercenter on Tobias Boland Way. CSOs are treated at the Quinsigamond Avenue CSO Treatment Facility before being discharged to the underground Mill Brook conduit and then the Blackstone River.
Treatment removes trash and solids and provides disinfection to kill bacteria. CSOs only happen during heavy or prolonged rains and typically occur five to 25 times per year, according to the City of Worcester.
SSOs can potentially occur anywhere in Worcester and are untreated. Depending on where the SSO is located, the affected lake, pond, river or stream will vary. The notification will advise as to which water bodies are impacted. SSOs requiring notification are uncommon and may happen a few times per year or even less frequently.
The city advises residents to stay out of the water and avoid recreation like swimming, wading, fishing and boating for 48 hours after a CSO or SSO occurs. The sewage could contain harmful bacteria and other pollutants that could make someone sick.
