Sewer main leak in Meredith quickly contained Wednesday

MEREDITH — Expecting to continue working into the night, crews worked all day to stop a sewer leak near the town docks on Wednesday.

A 12-inch force main sprung a leak around 7 a.m. Wednesday morning, most likely due to “old age,” Meredith Water and Sewer Superintendent Jason Bordeau said Wednesday afternoon.

The line, which originates in Center Harbor, was shut off at 8 a.m. Service to customers was not affected.

Around 3 p.m., a group of workers were pumping water out of a large hole in the town docks parking lot, opened up by a backhoe to access the sewer main. The section of pipe affected by the leak was roughly 10 feet below the pavement.

“This could go all night,” Bordeau said.

Water from the lake entered into the hole, making work on the pipe impossible without pumping it out. Once enough water was pumped out to access it, crews would begin cutting out the affected section and replacing it.

Some of the sewage probably entered the lake on Wednesday morning, and the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services was contacted immediately. No representatives from NHDES were onsite Wednesday in the afternoon. 

In Center Harbor, they’ve got three, five-acre sewage retention lagoons which can hold wastewater for between one and three months, depending on certain variables, Center Harbor Bay Sewer District Chief Operator and Superintendent Don Muscavitz said Wednesday.

“It’ll be good in the next day or so,” Bordeau said. 

Traffic on Daniel Webster Highway in the area of the town docks was not affected Wednesday afternoon, but a small portion of the parking lot near the docks was closed off to afford room to pumper trucks. 

There were two pumper trucks operating around 3 p.m., and town staff were optimistic a fourth would soon arrive.

“We isolated it, got it shut off as quick as we could,” Bordeau said. “We’re fortunate it’s in the parking lot, not in the street.”