Famed Breakers Mansion was Leaking Raw Sewage into Ocean

NEWPORT, RI—Until late last week, The Breakers in Newport—the crown jewel of Rhode Island's tourism industry—been discharging raw sewage into the ocean and nobody knows exactly how much or for how long.

Today, the toilets are shut off, port-a-pottys have been deployed and repairs are underway to fix a leak in the plumbing after the city issued an "illicit sewer discharge" letter on Friday to the Preservation Society of Newport County, the caretakers of the sprawling former summer home for the Vanderbilts.

The letter came after officials from the city's Department of Utilities used dye to confirm that wastewater from some of the mansion's bathrooms was being released from a pipe along the Newport Cliff Walk and into the ocean, said Newport Utilities Director, Julia Forgue.

"There are a lot of drain pipes coming out of the sea wall," Forgue said. At Ochre Point, "there are two drain pipes; one of them leads to storm drains and one apparently had some of their wastewater connected to it."

As soon as it was confirmed, "[the Preservation Society] immediately reacted," Forgue said, noting that it is unclear how long the pipe has been releasing untreated waste into the water, but it is clear that it was not intentional.

"There are a lot of pipes and plumbing was a lot different years ago," Forgue said.

The city began investigating the leak earlier this month after Dave McLaughlin of Clean Ocean Access notified the city that the pipe was leaking and it was very likely raw sewage.

In an interview, McLaughlin said that a group of surfers were out eagerly awaiting the waves from a passing tropical storm on June 8 when one called. He said: "There's a pipe leaking down here and there are telltale signs it's sewage," McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin rushed down to grab a water sample. It was a pipe he's looked at 100s of times before. It's one of 100s of pipes identified through his organization's work with Salve Regina University to identify all the possible sources of water pollution along the Newport coast. He had never seen it flowing. But on this day, it was flowing.

"It smelled bad," he said. "What was coming out were fine filaments, like what toilet paper looks like when it has gone through the system. A couple local contractors indicated the appearance resembled what they have seen when a sewer pipe breaks on a construction site."

The sample was sent to the state Department of Health. The next day, on June 9, the pipe was no longer flowing and McLaughlin sent an email to several city officials notifying them of the discovery.

Forgue said that the Preservation Society looked into the issue and came to believe that the pipe was connected to a drain, not the bathrooms.

But when the test came back last Thursday, the results were eye opening.

"It came back with 24,420 colony forms per 100 milliliters," McLaughlin said. "That's the sample maximum. When you hit the sample maximum, you have a problem."

The city immediately contacted the Preservation Society, the dye test was performed and "as soon as the Preservation Society became aware of a pipe leak, all toilets in The Breakers were turned off and port-a-johns were brought in," said Andrea Carneiro, communications manager for the Preservation Society of Newport County. "The source of the leak was discovered over the weekend, and repairs are underway."

McLaughlin said fixing this leak is one small victory in a much larger battle against pollution in local waters and a perfect example of the seemingly impossible task of tracking down every source, every small pipe quietly leaking into the sea.

If it weren't for the surfers noticing the leak, there would be no sample to take. What happened here, McLaughlin said, is an example of everyone working together aligned with a common goal: protecting the ocean.

"If these things didn't happen, if we went down there 12 hours later, it would have been too late," he said. "On Thursday morning, it wasn't flowing at all."

There are still likely other leaks like this one, McLaughlin said. For many years, there have been elevated bacteria level in nearby waters and old leaky pipes have been a prime suspect.

Beginning in 2008, Clean Ocean Access has been partnering with Salve Regina to map all the old pipes from First Beach all the way to Sheep Point.

"Some of the pipes are in old condition and this is one of those pipes," he said. "It's easy to look at and think 'it doesn't run anymore' but you know what? It takes one pipe incorrectly connected and you've contaminated an entire ecosystem."

Forgue said that The Breakers has a full connection to the city's sewer system. It's likely that only a small amount of the mansion's sewer discharge ended up going through the offending pipe, which McLaughlin said could be considered for removal as repairs to the Cliff Walk continue.

In the meantime, Clean Ocean Access continues to monitor more than 30 sites by collecting water samples regularly. The nonprofit accomplishes the Herculean effort with an army of volunteers who have been collecting samples faithfully since 2006.

For more about Clean Ocean Access, check out their website. They maintain a live spreadsheet of water quality data here.

This story is being updated.