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Crews Divert Amsterdam Sewage Spill

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A bypass has been successfully installed and sewage from Amsterdam is no longer flowing into the Mohawk River.

For six days, hundreds of thousands of gallons of raw sewage spilled into the Mohawk from the city's wastewater treatment system, as engineers attempted to pinpoint the source of the leak. After an initial attempt to put a bypass into place failed, word came Saturday that crews found the breach – a century-old pipe had failed under Forest Avenue.  

Amsterdam Mayor Michael Villa says the costs of repairs cannot be sustained by the city without outside help. Assemblyman Angelo Santabaraba last week called on the state to step in with emergency funding.

Mayor Villa:    "We are a city with a very aging infrastructure, as many cities and communities around us are. "

Plans for a long-term solution are to be discussed in Amsterdam on Monday

Dave Lucas is WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief. Born and raised in Albany, he’s been involved in nearly every aspect of local radio since 1981. Before joining WAMC, Dave was a reporter and anchor at WGY in Schenectady. Prior to that he hosted talk shows on WYJB and WROW, including the 1999 series of overnight radio broadcasts tracking the JonBenet Ramsey murder case with a cast of callers and characters from all over the world via the internet. In 2012, Dave received a Communicator Award of Distinction for his WAMC news story "Fail: The NYS Flood Panel," which explores whether the damage from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee could have been prevented or at least curbed. Dave began his radio career as a “morning personality” at WABY in Albany.
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