Sewage spills into Lake Wylie, city prepares to take action

LAKE WILEY, S.C. — Whenever there is a hard rain, many local families have to deal with a disgusting problem – sewage seeps into their yards and into Lake Wylie.

One of them shared some video she shot of the problem with Eyewitness News. It showed sewage spilling into Lake Wylie on Monday, flowing into the lake right next to people's boats.

The problem has happened many times before and now the city is ready to take some action.

The sewage spilled out of Tega Cay Water Service's treatment plan on Tuesday afternoon.

The sewage runs into Lake Wylie from a storm drain, coating the surface.

The sewage also leaked near the golf course fairways, forcing three holes to close down on Tuesday.

Neighbors frustrated with these issues, challenged the renewal of Tega Cay Water Service's license in 2010.

The license was still granted with a promise to fix these issues.

The state fined the utility in 2011 for not correcting the issues by their deadline and it is still happening.

Eyewitness News discovered this is the tenth sewer overflow this year alone.

Catawba Riverkeeper Rick Gaskins is so concerned and has now set up a meeting with Utilities INC., next week.

"It should be fixed, it is inexcusable that after all of these years we are still talking about leaks of raw sewage into Lake Wylie," said Gaskins.

On Tuesday a spokesman admitted their efforts have failed, saying the system has been tightened up significantly yet the situation seems to be getting worse.

They said a team of experts is heading to Tega Cay right now to investigate.

Neighbors said it can't happen soon enough.

"We just can't fathom why it continues to happen and why more has not been done to fix it," said Kelly Macaluso.

Tega Cay's city manager said he is very concerned about these spills because they make the city look bad and endanger people who live there.

At their next meeting May 20, he is going to ask City Council for money to study a plan that would let Tega Cay Water Service tap into the city sewage system to prevent these overflows.

The CEO of Tega Cay Water Service said they are open to any legitimate options or solutions to get the issue handled.

WSOC