The City of Newburgh’s Wastewater Treatment Plant experienced a broken pipe in a basement mechanical room during the early morning of Sunday, April 23, according to Mike Neppl, Chief of Staff for the City. The broken pipe flooded the basement mechanical room with sewage sludge, which also backed up in the office building. A Disaster Emergency notice was published in the Mid-Hudson Times the previous week to notify the public of the situation and no tours of the facility are offered to the public, according to Neppl.

According to Neppl, the city and its contractors kept the facility operating and in compliance while the broken pipe and mechanical equipment were repaired. The office suffered extensive damage which led to it being uninhabitable, and a temporary office trailer now serves the site. During the sewage cleanup process, the flooring tiles and lower wall areas of the office building needed to be removed to be fully cleaned, about which Neppl shared that suspected asbestos-containing materials were encountered. All cleanup actions immediately ceased.

A separate contractor was requested to be brought in to properly remove all the encountered asbestos materials. Special emergency permits were obtained from the New York State Department of Labor for the asbestos abatement work, which also required air monitoring and project oversight by trained personnel according to Neppl. All asbestos was properly removed and disposed of, and the building was permitted to be reoccupied on May 26.

“The City is now in the process of renovating the interior of the office building to restore the walls, floor coverings and HVAC equipment which were damaged and removed during the cleanup process. This requires design work to be completed before construction can be authorized,” stated Neppl. “The staff which previously occupied this administration building will continue to utilize the temporary office trailer while this work is underway.”