Raleigh Water officials said the incident began around 8:21 a.m. Tuesday at a construction site near 2800 Airport Boulevard. Contractors working on a sewer project were using a temporary bypass system when a pipe failed, causing an overflow.
The city said the failure involved a joint in a temporary bypass pipe connected to a larger sewer main that serves the Brier Creek pump station.
Officials estimate about 1,143,800 gallons of untreated wastewater were discharged during the incident. Most of that overflow was contained within excavated pits at the construction site and did not initially reach surface waters, according to Raleigh Water.
Crews responded with a pump-and-haul operation while contractors worked to repair the bypass pipe. The repair was completed just before 10 p.m. Tuesday, stopping the overflow.
However, during the cleanup, a contractor hired for the project mistakenly discharged wastewater into a nearby storm drain along Glenwood Avenue instead of directing it into the sanitary sewer system. That mistake allowed some wastewater to reach Turkey Creek.
The total amount of wastewater that reached the creek remains unknown, officials said.
An employee at Auction Direct said crews had been dumping wastewater from the RDU project next to the dealership for several days, but Tuesday's incident was the worst and impacted business.
"The customers were coming in complaining about the smell and then also about all of the activity and not being able to get by," said Auction Direct employee Marquis Dixon. "So (customers) were just kind of doing what they had to do. (Crews) were blocking up the street. So it was real rough on the customers. And then the smell. You can smell it in the building. So it was real rough for the customers to be out here and come out here and look at cars or even do test drives...because of the smell," he said. "We lost a lot of customers already, so we're normally packed on the weekends as well. So it's been a lot of people that turned around and left."
The city said the initial repair completed Tuesday had no impact to nearby residents.
Dixon said employees were told not to worry.
"They told us that when they were dumping it, the pipes flowed uphill. So we shouldn't worry about any being coming down as far as the smell or the stuff that they were dumping," he said. "But when they were dumping, it was actually coming downhill here. They dumped it right in the sewer holes."
Crews continued working Wednesday to recover wastewater and clean affected areas at both the construction site and along the creek.
The city said no fish kill or visible vegetative damage has been observed in connection with the spill so far.
The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality was notified and has conducted site visits at both locations. The agency is expected to continue monitoring the situation as cleanup efforts continue.
Officials said the spill is under investigation and additional follow-up is expected in the coming weeks.