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Flooding Led To More Than A Million Gallons Of Sewage Overflow In Greensboro

Downtown Greensboro. DAVID FORD/WFDD

Greensboro city officials say more than one million gallons of untreated wastewater have been discharged in overflows connected to Tropical Storm Michael.

The city reported six discharges in all, with the largest being 800,000 gallons released from Reedy Fork Lift Station. Rising waters from Middle Reedy Fork Creek flooded the station, causing it to shut down.

Three other lift stations also failed during the flooding. Additionally, discharges were reported from two manholes that overflowed, including a 200,000-gallon spill from a location on Battleground Avenue.

All of the wastewater flowed into tributaries of the Cape Fear River, according to city officials. Work crews were able to inspect and clean up after the discharges.

More than two million gallons of untreated wastewater also overflowed during flooding connected to Hurricane Florence. 

Paul Garber is a Winston-Salem native and an award-winning reporter who began his journalism career with an internship at The High Point Enterprise in 1993. He has previously worked at The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News and Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal, where he was the newspaper's first full-time multimedia reporter. He won the statewide Media and the Law award in 2000 and has also been recognized for his business, investigative and multimedia reporting. Paul earned a BA from Wake Forest University and has a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Lewisville.

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