It’s the Christmas present no one wanted–another sewage issue at Lake of the Woods.
According to Rapidan Service Authority (RSA) Officials, on Christmas day, a sewer line break occurred at 832 Eastover Parkway in the residential community with RSA notified at 1:39 p.m. and the affected line isolated by 2:20 p.m. A 4 ft. split had occurred in the force main. The damaged section of pipe, estimated to be approximately 40 years old, was removed and replaced. The failure appears to have occurred at or near a prior repair.
Due to the break, approximately 500 gallons of sewage entered Keaton’s Lake near 105 Larkspur Lane. RSA workers utilized a vacuum truck to clean the spill and applied lime to the ditch line for mitigation. The incident was reported to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. Due to the age of the pipe, RSA is said to be evaluating the cost and schedule for replacing the line in its entirety.
Meanwhile, Keatons Lake boat launch and cove remains closed. Water samples collected by the Lake of the Woods Association and RSA were sent for lab testing. The results revealed an E.coli level of 488.4MPN/100mL at the Keatons Lake boat launch, the second closest point to where the sewage entered the water and the main public access point for the lake. The state threshold for beach advisories is 235CFU/100mL. MPN, most probable number, and CFU, colony forming units, are equivalent measures. Other areas of Keatons Lake and Cumberland Beach tested well below the threshold and remain open.
Additional water samples were collected Jan. 5 with results expected within seven days.
This is the second time within several months that the area has been affected by a sewage spill. In June, a storm damaged RSA’s vacuum sewer collection state at the Lake of the Woods back gate. Initially, it was thought a small amount of sewage had passed through and may have been released into the community’s Main Lake via flood waters. That was later found to be false according to RSA officials, but it triggered increased testing in both the 500-acre manmade Main Lake and the 24-acre Keaton’s Lake.
For several weeks, test levels revealed higher than usual E.coli concentrations, intermittently closing the lakes and several beaches. Keaton’s Lake also experienced summer closures due to harmful algae blooms.
