Raw sewage spill pollutes Ohio River

LOUISVILLE, Ky., Nov. 12 (UPI) -- Residents near the Ohio River in Louisville, Ky., were warned not to swim in or eat fish from the river after an enormous raw sewage spill, officials said.

Eight million gallons of raw sewage entered the river Wednesday after a gate malfunctioned, Brian Bingham, spokesman for the Metro Sewage Department, said.

"It was a mechanical failure, something that no one could have foreseen, something that is unfortunate and horrible," Bingham told WLKY-TV, Louisville.

The malfunction occurred at the spillway near the Morris Forman Wastewater Treatment Plant, which processes about 50 million gallons of sewage a day.

Residents were warned not to swim in the river for at least three days and to avoid eating fish from its water for at least a week, Bingham said.

"There's not a whole lot that we can generally clean up when it overflows to the river," Bingham said.