A Mountain Dew spill at a Pepsi bottling plant in Howell, Michigan, last month created a "huge foaming event" and an
environmental concern, the Livingston Daily Press & Argus reported Monday.
Carla Davidson, a Michigan Department of Environmental Quality analyst, told the newspaper that 7,200 gallons of Mountain Dew syrup spilled after a tank ruptured, sending the product through a floor drain and into the plant's internal sewer system on March 10.
"A spill of this magnitude is highly unusual," Davidson told the Daily Press & Argus. She added that the high-sugar syrup that spilled could have a toxic effect on aquatic life in rivers, lakes and streams.
High fructose corn syrup is often the main sweetener in many soda drinks, according to National Public Radio. Mountain Dew contains 72.3 grams of product per liter, according to statistics from journal Nutrition in 2014.
Howell city manager Shea Charles told the Daily Press & Argus that he believed Pepsi followed protocol for such an event and managed the spill properly.
"We were out there monitoring; it did not get into the public sewer system," Charles said to the Daily Press & Argus.
Charles told WHMI Radio that Pepsi has a pre-treatment system so when the high sugary waste hit the system; it overwhelmed it and caused it to bubble over. He said all of the water and product was contained on the Pepsi site.
Davidson disputed claims by PepsiCo and Howell city officials that the spill was treated properly, wrote the Daily Press & Argus.
"They could have chosen to isolate," Davidson said. "They have an equalization basin; they knew there was a spill and they could have tried to isolate it, then have that waste water hauled away to protect the integrity of their pretreatment system. That's what normally we would recommend during a spill event like that."
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