Tunnel hits sewage line near Mexico-U.S. border
October 11, 2010 10:15 p.m. EDT

Line carries 9.9 million gallons of sewage
It's unclear how much has leaked

Suspected drug smugglers digging a tunnel across the Mexico-U.S. border hit a sewage line near Arizona, an official with Arizona's Nogales Utility said Monday night.

The 30-inch line, located on the Mexican side of the border, runs north and picks up raw sewage from Mexico, carrying about 9.9 million gallons of it a day, said Utility Director Flavio Gonzales.

Gonzales was concerned that if the pipe isn't fixed soon, the sewage could back up on the U.S. side of the border.

"We can't plug it off here so we are working with Mexico guys to plug it off there -- that way we don't get raw sewage backing up on our streets," he said.

It wasn't clear whether the line had been cracked or completely broken. Officials were trying to determine how much had leaked so far, Gonzales said.

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