Power outage, backup system failure send raw sewage spewing into the Rogue River

GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- A 20-second power outage caused 1,740 gallons of raw sewage to spill into the Rogue River early Sunday morning when a back-up system failed, the Grants Pass Water Restoration Plant superintendent reported Monday.

The power outage occurred at 11:40 PM Saturday night, setting of a chain reaction that led to the leak. Emergency back-up power at the plant came online, but a circuit breaker on a raw sewage inflow pump tripped, preventing the pumps from starting, causing the sewage to bypass the plant.

The plant was not staffed at the time of the incident. Alarm systems notified plant staff, who then took action to stop the sewage from bypassing into the river. City workers are investigating the incident and working on a solution to prevent it from happening again.