Thursday, 4:30 PM
Mishap on Deer Island douses employees in sewage
By Ryan Haggerty, Globe Correspondent
Two employees at the Deer Island Sewage Treatment plant were blasted by a pressurized stream of sewage this morning while performing routine maintenance on a treatment tank, a water authority spokeswoman said.
The workers were replacing a valve on a pipe when they were doused in "waste sludge" at about 11 a.m., said Ria Convery, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.
"Waste sludge is exactly what it sounds like," Convery said.
The concrete tank, where solid and liquid waste are separated, was empty and offline at the time of the incident, Convery said.
The employees were decontaminated at the plant by firefighters before being taken to local hospitals as a precautionary measure, said Steve MacDonald, spokesman for the Boston Fire Department.
