The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Division of Water has issued a nuisance abatement order giving the Petersburg Borough Public Works Department 48 hours to clean up a spillage of waste.

The Wastewater Utility transports and buries piles of solid waste at the borough’s landfill. This week, while digging a hole with an excavator, Public Works Director Karl Hagerman said, sludge sitting to the side to be buried slid down a hill to a creek that runs to the Sandy Beach Park area.

From the top of the slope to the creek is 60 to 75 cubic yards of sludge mixed with a hydra...