Police say red paint contaminated a sewage system in Elk County.
It happened over the weekend at the Benezette Township Sewer Authority plant off School House Road in Benezette.
Supervisors say gallons worth of red paint was illegally dumped. Eventually, the red color of the paint started changing. They called in tanker trucks to pump almost all of the sewage out.
Jay Township donated some “fresh” sewage to prime the system, and things now seem to be running smoothly once again, supervisor James McCluskey said.
“That sort of stuff can’t be dumped into the environment anymore and that’s exactly what would have happened to it. I think somebody purposely figured they would dispose of it and that was the wrong place to dispose of it,” says supervisor Doug Ruffo.
McCluskey says they had to call in two trucks to remove the red sewage, which cost about $1,200. Police are investigating.