Salisbury Daily Times
Officials estimate the sewer pipe rupture that sent wastewater flowing into the St. Jones River in Kent County last week was in the millions, making it one of the largest — if not the largest — sewage spills to have occurred in Delaware in recent years.
The leak is now estimated between 1.8 million gallons and 2.6 million gallons, wrote Diana Golt, director of the Kent County Department of Public Works, in an email. No Delaware sewage spill has come close to that size since 1.3 million gallons leaked into one of the St. Jones' tributaries in 2013, according to state records.
The St. Jones, which is 12.8 miles long and drains to the Delaware Bay, has a history of frequent sewage spills. In 11 separate incidents from July 2016 to February 2017, Kent County reported a total of 984,322 gallons of untreated sewage was discharged into the St. Jones and grounds near its pumping station.