Texas city at war with nearby small town that's been dumping sewage into popular tourist lake for seven years

Over one million gallons of human waste has been dumped in Dallas' White Rock Lake over the last seven years by a neighboring small town using it as a sewage landfill.  

The untreated raw sewage came from Plano, a rich suburb north of Dallas, and it turns out, this wasn't the first time. 

Plano's sewage has ended up in the Texas lake 30 times in the last seven years, according to environmental records obtained by D Magazine. 

With such a disgusting track record, the City of Dallas is considering suing Plano, best known as home to posh soccer moms with $1,000 baby strollers and major corporate headquarters (Toyota Motor North America, JC Penney and Frito Lay [PepsiCo] to name a few.)

'Same sh**, different day,' Paula Blackmon, the Dallas council representative for White Rock Lake told the magazine. 

White Rock Lake, where over one millions gallons of untreated sewage have been dumped over the last seven years, is popular with Dallas crowds in the summer 

'They [Plano] are aware that we [Dallas] are not happy and that they need to stop. I did call Plano myself and talked to [Director of Policy and Government Relations] Andrew Fortune. They need to get their stuff working. 

'B****ing and yelling from the highest mountain isn’t going to solve the problem. They need to fix their infrastructure.'

The Dallas official added there were other conversations that happened in executive session regarding the matter, but she couldn't speak about them publicly. 

The latest spill happened March 14 when a valve at a Plano waste water facility failed, according to Dallas Morning News.

It flooded the station and overflowed into a creek that empties in White Rock Lake- some 30 miles south. 

For 38 hours, brown water gushed into the lake, with an estimated 500 gallons of sewage per minute flowing in. 

A waste water treatment plant in Plano has repeatedly been the source of sewage leaks into a lake downstream in Dallas

White Rock Lake is a popular outdoor venue in East Dallas, surrounded by multi-million dollar homes

When the water was tested on March 21, high levels of E. coli were still detected, although it wasn't clear how bad the contamination was. 

Water sports and other recreational activities were suspended until a clean-up effort or chlorine tablets and clean waster were added to the lake to return the water to safe levels.

 It's unclear whether the City of Plano has been fined for this or any of its previous sewer spills. 

In November 2021 more than 320,000 gallons of sewage spilled into the creek after a storm damaged a sewage line.

In June 2018, recreational activities at White Rock Lake were also suspended after 1 million gallons of feces water escaped into the lake-- blamed on a broken pipe in Plano.

In that case, the contractor breaking the pipe was fine $7,500, according to the local paper.

For its part, the City of Plano claims it is replacing old sewer pipes and making improvements to facilities.

After sewage leaks into White Rock Lake, outdoor recreational activities have been suspended until water levels are safe