Oct. 2--After a week of contaminating the Ocmulgee River, three major sewage spills ended in the early hours of Thursday morning, according to the Macon Water Authority.

The spills, which by authority estimates totaled about 35 million gallons, were caused when the authority shut down a pump station that normally pushes sewage underneath the river toward the Lower Poplar sewage treatment plant. That action became necessary last week after heavy rains and a corroded sewer pipe caused a sinkhole at the foot of Macon's levee, jeopardizing the earthen berm around part of the city.

Authority and local public works employees worked frantically to sandbag the sinkhole, and a contractor started the next day setting up above-ground bypass pipes so sewage could flow without traveling through the broken pipe.

That effort was finished at 2 a.m. Thursday, allowing the authority to start pumping again and end the spills around sunrise, said Tony Rojas, the authority's executive director.

The bypass is a short-term fix as the authority replaces the corroded pipe, and residents are asked to avoid the sinkhole area while that work continues.

Rojas said employee crews began early Thursday morning cleaning up from the sewage spills, which were all in public recreation areas. Two were on the Ocmulgee Heritage Trail and one was in the Ocmulgee National Monument.

At the Spring Street boat ramp, sewage was leaking from the top of the concrete slab and shooting up at the bottom. Mike Ford, CEO of NewTown Macon, said his agency will consult with the state Department of Natural Resources about whether the spill has eroded soil beneath the boat ramp and made it unstable. He said the ramp was built at a bad angle and needs replacing anyway.

When the sinkhole was first found, authority officials installed a cap over the growing hole in the pipe but thought the levee was in no danger as they kept the river out, Rojas said.

But as the day wore on, groundwater began to fill the sinkhole, causing more and more dirt to crumble in.

When the authority briefly turned on the pumps at the Main Street lift station in the middle of the night, groundwater and dirt in the hole started getting sucked into the pipe and the sandbags were shifting, Rojas said.

"I was scared to death," Rojas said. "It was like this: 'I've never flooded a city before. I don't want to start tonight.' "

A representative from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stayed at the levee all night Wednesday, Rojas said.