Minneapolis Sewer Worker Receives "Blood Bath"

A Minneapolis city employee got a gruesome surprise as he was cleaning the city's sewer line. A manhole near a medical laboratory began spraying human and animal blood into the face and mouth of Ron Huebner.

"A SCENE FROM A HORROR MOVIE"...

"Blood just all over my face, in my mouth, I could taste it. It was terrible. I had it in my mouth and I kept spitting and I couldn't get rid of it." These are the words that Ron Huebner uttered regarding the incident which actually took place two weeks prior.

In Northeast Minneapolis, a medical lab which performs medical testing dumped blood into the sewer. This particular act is allowed in the city. But reports indicate that officials are working to address the guidelines which protect city workers.

The regional planning agency for Minneapolis and St. Paul, The Metropolitan Council, has confirmed that the blood was indeed a combination of both animal and human matter. But Public Works Deputy Director Heidi Hamilton claims that the city was unaware that the laboratory was dumping blood into the sewer.

"We did not specifically know that this particular facility was discharging blood into the sewer system," said Hamilton.

A BLOODY FUTURE...?

Huebner declares that he hasn't been sleeping much since the incident. He's very concerned about the blood that he might have ingested while he was working. The medical laboratory, R&D Systems, has a permit to dump blood into the sewer system. Huebner's superiors were not aware of this, and thus did not provide him with warning or protective gear.

Since the bloody fiasco, the Metropolitan Council has required that a pair of goggles and/or face mask are worn while working above the manhole. Additionally, the city will warn the lab that it is coming to clean the sewer; all blood discharges must cease until the city's cleaning is complete.

R&D has advised the city that there are no health risks posed by the dumping. The Metropolitan Council has also confirmed that blood in sewers is "no more harmful than most other wastes in there." But these claims have failed to soothe the city worker's nerves. Huebner further laments:

"I'm going to hope that nothing's wrong with me. But I don't want to see this happen to anyone else in my department."

The Metropolitan Council affirms that a sanitary sewer system is meant to accommodate various types of liquid waste. Per the Council, nearly fifty different organizations possess permits allowing them to dispose of those kinds of wastes.