Sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) reported — City of Portsmouth (collection system and pump stations), May 25, 2026

Record details

Original source data

{
  "report": {
    "id": "323780",
    "via": "api",
    "incident": "2026-05-25T12:00:00",
    "incident_end": null,
    "received": "2026-05-30T13:54:00",
    "closed": "2026-09-15T09:08:12",
    "modified": "2026-09-15T09:08:12",
    "date_unknown": false,
    "site_name": "SSO - 709 Douglass Ave - Portsmouth",
    "address": "709 Douglass Avenue",
    "city": "Portsmouth",
    "zip": null,
    "county_city": "Portsmouth City",
    "region": "Tidewater",
    "status_text": "Closed",
    "categories": [
      "Risk Tier 2",
      "Sanitary Sewer Overflow",
      "Unauthorized Discharge of Pollutant(s)"
    ],
    "waterbody": "Elizabeth River",
    "other_waterbody": null,
    "original_waterbody": "Elizabeth River",
    "water_threatened": "Y",
    "low": null,
    "high": null,
    "unit": null,
    "ssors": "106764",
    "nrc": [],
    "vdem": null,
    "epa": null,
    "facility_name": null,
    "facility_permitted": "N",
    "responsible_company": "Portsmouth Public Utilities",
    "still_occurring": "N"
  },
  "text": {
    "incident_comment": "Per VDEM-2026-05-30-0112, Caller is reporting raw sewage possibly in the rear of the residential property at 709 Douglas Avenue (on grassy area and dirt/local water source possibly impacted). She resides at 713 Douglas and has the same green water coming into her toilet and sinks. She has reported this to the City about 6 times without success. Request to speak w/ DEQ or RHMO reference the same.\n\nDEQ AH spoke with the reporting party. Local FD was notified by VDEM RHMO. Local FD investigated and verified a sanitary sewer line was actively overflowing but Portsmouth Public Utilities was on site to begin pumping down the system to determine necessary repairs. DEQ AH provided update to VDH ODW & Shellfish divisions.\n\nSSORS ID 106764 received on behalf of event.",
    "location_comment": "Manhole near incident location",
    "closure_comment": "SSORs report received, SSO tracked by Water Compliance."
  },
  "sewage": [
    {
      "duration_h": 6.5,
      "component": "Cleanout",
      "component_id": 14,
      "volume_gal": 100,
      "volume_unknown": "N",
      "wet_weather": "N",
      "treated": "N",
      "precipitation_in": null,
      "causes": [
        "Pump Station"
      ],
      "impacts": [
        "Discharge to State Waters"
      ],
      "corrective_action": "Pump and hall the weekend, clean suction well on 6/1/26 cleaned alleyway",
      "steps_taken": null,
      "component_comment": null,
      "other_cause": null
    }
  ],
  "status_log": [
    {
      "at": "2026-05-30T00:00:00",
      "type": "Correspondence Sent"
    },
    {
      "at": "2026-05-30T00:00:00",
      "type": "Phone Call"
    },
    {
      "at": "2026-05-30T00:00:00",
      "type": "Phone Call"
    },
    {
      "at": "2026-06-01T00:00:00",
      "type": "Correspondence Sent"
    },
    {
      "at": "2026-06-01T10:26:04",
      "type": "Call Received"
    },
    {
      "at": "2026-06-01T10:37:44",
      "type": "Program Participant Assigned"
    },
    {
      "at": "2026-06-01T10:37:54",
      "type": "Assigned"
    },
    {
      "at": "2026-06-01T10:37:54",
      "type": "Under Investigation"
    },
    {
      "at": "2026-06-02T00:00:00",
      "type": "Correspondence Sent"
    },
    {
      "at": "2026-09-15T09:08:12",
      "type": "Closed Call/IR"
    }
  ],
  "created_in_prep": "2026-06-01T10:26:04",
  "event_type_basis": "DEQ category Sanitary Sewer Overflow",
  "permit": {
    "typed_permit": null,
    "deq_vpdes_links": null,
    "ms4": null,
    "ms4_links": null,
    "basis": "none"
  },
  "discharger_match": {
    "by_permit": null,
    "by_name": [
      "va-portsmouth"
    ],
    "result": "by operator name in the report"
  },
  "volume_basis": "sewage report discharge volume (gallons)",
  "_ended_at_basis": "incident time + duration 6.5 h (sewage report)",
  "_time_basis": "PReP API times are local wall-clock times with no zone, read as America/New_York. The export table stores local time + 5 h all year (decoded by subtracting 5 h); the EDMA point layer stores local time labelled as UTC (decoded by reading the UTC clock as local).",
  "water_placement": {
    "text": "Elizabeth River",
    "towns": [
      "Portsmouth",
      "Portsmouth City"
    ],
    "notes": null,
    "echo_outfall": null
  },
  "point": {
    "lat": 36.842392,
    "lon": -76.338451,
    "layer": "DEQ EDMA layer 175 (PReP Reports, Daily)",
    "reference_point": "PG",
    "note": "DEQ's geocode of the report's site address (REFERENCE_POINT 'PG'), not an outfall point",
    "edma_incident": "2026-05-25T12:00:00-04:00",
    "edma_received": "2026-05-30T13:54:00-04:00"
  },
  "attribution": "DEQ is the data source. DEQ does not certify that this data represents a complete record. This data is provided to the citizens of the Commonwealth free of charge and for informational purposes only.",
  "api_url": "https://portal.deq.virginia.gov/prep/api/prepReports/323780?expand=prepStatusCode,prepUnitTypeCode,prepReportSewages.prepComponentTypeCode,prepReportSewages.prepSewageCauses.prepCauseCode,prepReportSewages.prepSewageImpacts.prepImpactTypeCode,prepReportReleaseSubtypes.prepReleaseSubtypeCode,prepReportPermitViews,prepOriginalReport,prepReportEvents.prepEventTypeCode,prepFipsCode.fipsRegion"
}

Source: Virginia DEQ Pollution Response Program (PReP), Tidewater Regional Office via Virginia DEQ Pollution Response Program (PReP) pollution reports, sewage-related, record 323780, reported May 30, 2026, 1:54 PM EDT, retrieved 2026-11-03 02:40 UTC · Read the original notice

Staff names, email addresses and phone numbers are removed from source data before it is stored.