A sewer worker was rescued on March 21 after he was swept down a pipe at the Chambers Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Pierce County, Wash.

The Tacoma News Tribune reported that the man was carried about 3,000 feet down a 72-inch sewer before he was caught at a manhole. The man, a 37-year-old contract worker, was evaluated at a local hospital but apparently had only minor injuries. The cause of the incident was being investigated.

“The man was working 150 feet below ground on the sewer system at the plant...when a surge of water pushed him through the pipe,” the newspaper reported. A news release from the county stated that treatment plant maintenance program manager Scott Roth received a call at 7:53 a.m. reporting that the man came loose from his safety line while working on a rehabilitation project.

He was swept down the pipe, which had a four percent slope, past two manholes before managing to stop himself at a third. Public works and utilities sewer crews there connected a safety rope to him and pulled him to the surface.

The contractor was working on rehabilitation of the main sewer line that collects all flow to the Chambers Creek treatment plant. The project entails lining the concrete pipe with a reinforced fiberglass liner. The contractor was working in a temporary access shaft before being swept away. Read more at http://blog.thenewstribune.com/crime/2011/03/21/crews-rose-to-the-occasion-in-sewer-worker-rescue-pierce-county-official-says/