Sewage Leak Causes Dangerous Bacteria Levels in Trimmier Creek
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department says a sewage leak into Trimmier Creek is the cause for bacteria contamination that is 1000 times the normal level considered to be safe for human contact.
The Parks and Wildlife Department got involved after a massive die-off of fish downstream from the spot the sewage was released into the creek. This story goes back to December of last year when residents in the Tuscany Meadows development in Harker Heights began to report a terrible smell coming from behind a series of homes in the neighborhood that ran along the creek. The neighborhood is shaded in red in the photo below.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Control began to investigate and found evidence of human waste along the creek bank, and further evidence oozing out of manhole covers along the creek itself.
Trimmier Creek is an off-shoot of the Stillhouse Hollow Lake Reservoir that sits southeast of Harker Heights. The U.S. Army Corps plans on opening a water treatment plant in 2018 in order to use the reservoir to provide drinking water to the city of Killeen.