Officials: flood waters could be health risk

(WTNH) -- State environmental and health officials are putting out a warning to state residents: flood waters from Sandy could be a health risk.

The problem is that raw sewage discharge from treatment plants and pumping stations.

The pumping station in West Haven on Beach Street was flooded by Sandy. It was closed down for a while Tuesday, but it is back up again. A second one caught on fire that too is operating again.

The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection says flooding and power outages led to the raw sewage to flow into Long Island Sound and other waterways.

Deputy Fire Chief Scott Schwartz is the Emergency Management Director of West Haven.

"What's the basic health risk for people," asked News 8's Jocelyn Maminta.

"Just the contaminated sewage that would be leaking in there so they'd want to stay away from that water in their basement," Schwartz said. "There's a lot of other contaminants down there, but that would be the one that we would not want the bacteria to be leaching into anything."

Health experts say raw sewage gets diluted in large bodies of water so there are usually no cleanup plans.

The bottom line is to stay away from flood waters and assume they are contaminated.

To help out, especially private well owners who do not have access to clean, safe water, the Connecticut Water Company is setting up free water filling stations in communities with widespread power outages along the shoreline and in the eastern part of the state.

It will be self service and open 24 hours.

For more information and a list of the free water filling stations visit the Connecticut Water website .