Green Slime Came From Routine Dye Test

The green substance spotted coming out of a pipe and spilling into the Housatonic River Thursday afternoon was a harmless dye, the result of routine testing, Derby officials said Friday.

Derby firefighters were called to the Derby-Shelton bridge for a possible hazardous material incident at about 1:30 p.m. Thursday after someone spotted what looked like green antifreeze coming out of a pipe and pooling in the Housatonic River.

A crew from the city’s Water Pollution Control Authority quickly determined it was a dye from a single storm water test being conducted at a residence on Minerva Street.

The material was non-toxic.

Occasionally we have people call the WPCA and request that their roof leaders (downspouts) be dye-tested to see where the water is going,” said WPCA chairman John Saccu.

In this case, a building owner made that request. We did a dye test. The harmless dye ended up where it was supposed to,” Saccu said. If it was incorrectly hooked up, that dye would have ended up in the sewage treatment plant.”

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