Wastewater spills into New York river

Up to 25,000 gallons of wastewater have spilled into a New York river, according to US government officials.

The New York state department of environmental conservation (DEC) has confirmed that the untreated wastewater seeped into the Mettawee river after a spillage occurred at the Village of Granville's sewer plant, which processes approximately 575,000 gallons of wastewater every day.

It has not yet been established whether the incident represents a contravention of environmental legislation, but the DEC is conducting investigations into the cause of the failure at the 70-year-old plant, which has been working on improvements to its procedures since 2003.

The spillage itself was not discovered until 24 hours after it took place, CBS 6 Albany reported.

In related news, health experts met yesterday in Boston to discuss the fate of a wastewater treatment plant based in Brockton which is suspected to be emitting a greater amount of pollution than in previous years.

Written by Joseph Hutton