Sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) reported — Town of Tappahannock Wastewater Treatment Plant, Sep 9, 2026

Record details

Original source data

{
  "report": {
    "id": "325292",
    "via": "api",
    "incident": "2026-09-09T09:45:00",
    "incident_end": null,
    "received": "2026-09-09T13:15:00",
    "closed": "2026-09-14T08:30:11",
    "modified": "2026-09-14T08:30:11",
    "date_unknown": false,
    "site_name": "SSO - Tappahannock Conveyance - Sewer line blockage at 915 Church Street",
    "address": "915 Church Street",
    "city": "Tappahannock",
    "zip": "22560",
    "county_city": "Essex County",
    "region": "Piedmont",
    "status_text": "Closed",
    "categories": [
      "Sanitary Sewer Overflow"
    ],
    "waterbody": null,
    "other_waterbody": "Discharge was to ground surface.  Did not reach State Waters.",
    "original_waterbody": null,
    "water_threatened": "N",
    "low": 0,
    "high": 1100,
    "unit": "Gallons",
    "ssors": null,
    "nrc": [],
    "vdem": null,
    "epa": null,
    "facility_name": "Tappahannock Town of WWTP",
    "facility_permitted": "Y",
    "responsible_company": null,
    "still_occurring": "N"
  },
  "text": {
    "incident_comment": "This letter is to inform you of the unusual collection system discharge of Raw Domestic Sewage which occurred on Wednesday September 9th, 2026, due to a sewer line blockage that overflowed a manhole in the Town of Tappahannock.\n\nThe Town of Tappahannock experienced a sewer line blockage that overflowed a manhole behind the Essex Square Shopping Center just off Church Street. The Town was notified of the overflow just after 09:45hrs, utility crews were dispatched to the scene and found the manhole overflowing behind the Essex Square Shopping Center. Utility crews were able to clear the blockage and clean up the site within hours. During utility work a customer stated that the overflow had been going on sense early Tuesday morning but was never reported. Estimated loss of Domestic Raw Sewage is 1,100 gallons. \n\nThe sewage that escaped from the manhole flowed across the parking lot into a wooded area, flow stopped 50 yards into wooded area. No Domestic Raw Sewage flowed into any receiving streams or bodies of water.\n\nThe sewage spill was successfully cleaned up in accordance with reporting requirements of the VPDES Permit for the Town of Tappahannock Wastewater Treatment Plant.",
    "location_comment": "915 Church Street - Sewer line located behind Essex Square Shopping Center in The Town of Tappahannock off Church Street.",
    "closure_comment": null
  },
  "sewage": [
    {
      "duration_h": 24,
      "component": "Pipe",
      "component_id": 10,
      "volume_gal": 1100,
      "volume_unknown": null,
      "wet_weather": "N",
      "treated": "N",
      "precipitation_in": null,
      "causes": [
        "Blockage"
      ],
      "impacts": [
        "Sewage on Land Surface with Potential Human Exposure"
      ],
      "corrective_action": "Removed blockage.",
      "steps_taken": null,
      "component_comment": null,
      "other_cause": null
    }
  ],
  "status_log": [
    {
      "at": "2026-09-14T08:19:14",
      "type": "Call Received"
    },
    {
      "at": "2026-09-14T08:30:01",
      "type": "Assigned"
    },
    {
      "at": "2026-09-14T08:30:01",
      "type": "Under Investigation"
    },
    {
      "at": "2026-09-14T08:30:11",
      "type": "Closed Call/IR"
    }
  ],
  "created_in_prep": "2026-09-14T08:19:14",
  "event_type_basis": "DEQ category Sanitary Sewer Overflow",
  "permit": {
    "typed_permit": "VA0071471",
    "deq_vpdes_links": [
      "VA0071471"
    ],
    "ms4": null,
    "ms4_links": null,
    "basis": "DEQ's VPDES link on the report"
  },
  "discharger_match": {
    "by_permit": "va-tappahannock",
    "by_name": null,
    "result": "by permit"
  },
  "volume_basis": "sewage report discharge volume (gallons)",
  "_ended_at_basis": "incident time + duration 24 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": "Discharge was to ground surface.  Did not reach State Waters.",
    "towns": [
      "Tappahannock",
      "Essex County"
    ],
    "notes": null,
    "echo_outfall": null
  },
  "point": {
    "lat": 37.920459,
    "lon": -76.859392,
    "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": "2026-09-09T09:45:00-04:00",
    "edma_received": "2026-09-09T13:15:00-04:00"
  },
  "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/325292?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), Piedmont Regional Office via Virginia DEQ Pollution Response Program (PReP) pollution reports, sewage-related, record 325292, reported Sep 9, 2026, 1:15 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.