Sewage release at GHT mobile home park
Sat, Sep 6, 2008
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GRAND HAVEN TOWNSHIP Between 50 and 70 gallons of sewage spilled onto a vacant home site at River Haven Mobile Home Park on Wednesday afternoon.
A representative of the Sun Communities, the company that owns the Grand Haven Township community, said the spill of mainly "liquid sewage" was cleaned up in about two hours.
Len Shember, vice president of construction services for Sun Communities, said the park's sewer system backed up at around 3:30 p.m. when a "grease log" formed a clog. The sewage spilled onto Lot 216 and was cleaned up by 5:30 p.m., according to Shember.
"It's not uncommon to have grease build up in a sanitation system," he said.
Shember said the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality was notified of the release.
In September 2007, the Ottawa County Health Department issued a no-body contact advisory for a portion of the Grand River after what the county said was more than 100,000 gallons of untreated sewage had spilled from River Haven into the river. Sun Communities officials disputed the release amount, saying then that it was less than 7,000 gallons of "treated secondary sewage" that spilled into the river.
River Haven is located off Mercury Drive and 144th Avenue.