An engineering study of last summer’s sewage spill in Thomasville commissioned by the city raises the possibility that the spill may have been less than 15.93 million gallons and that long-term environmental damage likely will be small.

Brown and Caldwell Environmental Engineers and Consultants of Charlotte said the exact amount of the spill couldn’t be determined from records but probably ranged between 4.6 million and 13.7 million gallons. However, the study’s report did say that long-term damage from the spill wasn’t likely because of the nearly 5 billion gallon daily flow of water in Abbotts Creek, the basin into which the sewage would have flowed.

Those findings, though, don’t change the fact that parts of Thomasville’s sewer system were in unacceptable shape at the time of the spill and still are as the city awaits state approval of plans to replace old sewer lines in that area. The city has approved a plan totaling more than a half million dollars to make repairs in the area of the spill. Let’s hope the state moves ahead with necessary approvals.

Another aspect of the study dealt with areas where corroded lines that could lead to similar problems in the future were uncovered. The engineering firm recommended replacing lines in such shape.

This incident is a lesson for smaller cities such as Thomasville and larger ones such as High Point as well. Sewage disposal systems help make cities the hubs of business and industry that they are. But being lax in regular maintenance and inspection of the sewer lines – whether through negligence or budgeting constraints in tight fiscal times – can come back to haunt the cities.

Thomasville has paid a steep price in the wake of last summer’s spill in cash and in bad press. Every official of every city should remember that preventive maintenance is not cheap, but it is cheaper.