'Temporary sleeve' installed to keep sewage from leaking into Susquehanna River: DEP

Sewage is in the Susquehanna River after a major sewer line break Sunday in Selinsgrove.

According to Snyder County Emergency Management, a contractor installed a temporary sleeve Sunday night to stop the leak.

However, that's not easing the minds of some neighbors so close to the river off of Front Street.

"Oh, I was kind of disgusted. It's an awful environmental thing," saidFront Street neighbor James Shipe.

It's been over 24 hours since a 20-inch sewage line rupture was found near the East Snyder CountyRegional Authority's (ESCRA) sewage treatment facility.

The pipe that broke moves an average of two million gallons of sewage a day to communities including Selinsgrove, Shamokin Dam and Penn Township.

READ MORE |

"This is just devastating with a sewer leak and all that. It needs to be taken care of," said Shipe. "This river, in all honesty, has degraded environmentally since I moved here about 20 years ago."

Though, not everyone is as down in the dumps.

"I was born and raised with sewage coming down the river," saidJim Charles, another neighbor on Front St. "Our joke was you don't grab the pine cones that are floating down the river."

"It's, I guess, a catastrophic failure, but it is not even what I would consider an environmental catastrophe," Charles continued. "If we have any amount of rain at all, it's going to bring the creek and the river up and the truth is it'll flush it all out."

Customers are being asked to limit the use of their sewage systems as much as possible, which means taking fewer showers, doing less laundry and even flushing the toilet less often (but as needed).

The Pennsylvania Department of Environment Protection has recommended people avoid doing things like fishing, boating and swimming in impacted waterways, including the Susquehanna for 20 miles downstream of Selinsgrove to the Liverpool area in Perry County.

"I don't see this having any long-term effect on our quality of life," said Charles.

"They'll get on this because this has such an environmental impact. They'll get on it," said Shipe.

The DEP says that public drinking water supplies in the area are safe.

Officials from the Pennsylvania Fish and Boating Commission say there are no associated deaths of any aquatic life. They say someone is monitoring the situation.

CBS21 is waiting for further updates on how the repairs are going or when the repairs will be completed.