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THOMASVILLE — This city's recent sewage spill probably wasn't as big as advertised, but it might have been big enough to spur some changes in a once rural watershed now under heavy development pressure.

Area residents say the spill of up to 15.9 million gallons should trigger major fixes to Thomasville's leak-prone network of sewer lines. The system located in the watershed for High Rock Lake has caused at least 38 spills of untreated sewage since June 2004, according to state water-quality records.

Those spills totaled more than 2 million gallons of human, commercial and industrial waste in addition to the large overflow earlier this summer, which some officials don't believe reached the 15.9 million gallons widely reported.

Whatever the amount, there's no doubt the spill was huge. And it proves Thomasville's aging "collection system" is outdated and undersized, critics say.

"It's like putting five gallons of water into a one gallon can," said Mary Cridlebaugh, co-owner of a farm in the eastern Davidson County watershed and spokeswoman for the Friends of Rich Fork Creek environmental group.

Thomasville's big spill apparently began in July, but wasn't fixed until Aug. 4 and only came to light in recent weeks after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began an investigation.

But Cridlebaugh and other residents have long been urging Thomasville and High Point to clean up their acts in the watershed that includes Rich Fork, Hamby and Abbotts creeks.

Both cities run decades-old sewage plants and discharge into creeks state regulators list as polluted. The plants are seven miles apart on different streams, but both have Thomasville mailing addresses.

High Point has made the most progress so far, said Cridlebaugh, whose farm has two High Point sewer lines on it.

But High Point acted only after years of complaints and spills, including one on her farm that lasted several weeks and might have been bigger than Thomasville's recent snafu, she said.

"High Point has upgraded, and they are in the process of rebuilding right now," Cridlebaugh said. "Thomasville is going to have to do the same thing."

High Point's modernization program carries a price tag of more than $30 million to upgrade both its Westside Wastewater Treatment Plant in eastern Davidson County and all sewer lines for that area.

Thomasville recently spent $27 million revamping its Hamby Creek sewage plant. But the underground collection system with 130 miles of pipes still awaits action.

Thomasville officials are more than willing to fix the problem, but lack financial resources to deal with all of it at once, City Manager Kelly Craver said.

The city's economy still suffers from the loss of textile and furniture-making jobs over the past decade, meaning local officials must tackle such projects one step at a time, Craver said.

"We felt that our first priority should be rebuilding the wastewater treatment plant," Craver said. "Our next priority is going to be the collection system."

Delay also carries costs: Since 2004, Thomasville has paid $36,000 in state fines for spills from its aging sewer lines, not including the big one still under investigation.

City administrators met last week with an engineering firm to discuss upgrading the collection system, including the line causing the latest big spill.

They are scouring the city budget for money to divert to that and will ask state officials about an emergency grant or loan, Craver said

Dramatic as they may be, sewage spills are not the watershed's biggest problem, experts say.

The No. 1 issue is haphazard residential development and the polluted storm water that ends up in streams as a result, said Cy Stober, water resources planner with the Piedmont Triad Council of Governments.

Still, sewage spills are not good for society or the environment. They can spread disease and damage the lake by encouraging algae growth or causing fish kills.

Thomasville leaders are determined to find out what happened in the recent spill and prevent its recurrence, Mayor Joe Bennett said.

"It's possible we may never have all the complete answer (to what happened)," Bennett said. "But we are not going to leave any pebble unturned."

Morgan Huffman, Thomasville's public services director, said he first learned of the spill Aug. 3, had it fixed by the next evening and initially estimated the city lost 385,850 gallons of sewage in those two days.

The mishap stemmed from the collapse of an old manhole, weakened by sewer gas, in a remote area, he said.

He filed a report with state regulators acknowledging the two-day spill. The state fines cities for spills based on such reports.

But in late August, a worker at the plant contacted Dean Naujoks, the Yadkin River keeper whose domain includes High Rock.

The anonymous operator said the spill actually started July 13 and went unchecked for nearly three weeks despite efforts by rank and file city employees to alert superiors, Naujoks said the operator told him.

The operator thought the spill might be more than 5 million gallons, he said.

"Somebody is not telling the truth. I'm really disappointed in the town leadership," Naujoks said in a recent interview.

He reported the matter to the EPA, which launched a criminal investigation. EPA officials said Thursday their inquiry is continuing.

About two weeks ago, Huffman filed an amended report with state regulators that 15.9 million gallons of sewage was lost in the spill that started July 13 — 21 days earlier than originally reported.

But he only made the changes because an EPA criminal investigator "strongly suggested" them, Huffman said.

Now, both he and Craver say their subsequent review of plant records and interviews with employees leave them wondering how the spill could have been anywhere near 15.9 million gallons and gone on so long without causing fish kills or attracting numerous complaints from area residents. Nor have they found evidence any employee sent up "red flags' that superiors missed, they said.

A collection-system supervisor retired last week after it emerged he did not properly respond to a July 31 customer complaint about odors possibly linked to the massive spill.

The state Division of Water Quality is leaving the criminal investigation to EPA, said Steve Tedder, the division's surface-water supervisor for the Triad.

But he agrees with Huffman and Craver that the estimate of 15.9 million gallons spilled is likely too high.

"I think it's probably below that, but I don't know how much below," Tedder said.

Meanwhile, the city government is continuing its own inquiry, Bennett said. The findings will be made public as soon as possible, he said.

"We are not the only city with a system that has some age on it," the mayor said. "It happened. It's unfortunate, but we are going to deal with it."

Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or taft.wireback@news-record.com