Policeman digs deep to rescue dog from foamy sewer tank

A Kalama police officer soiled his uniform rescuing a stray dog from drowning in tank of sewage at the city’s sewage treatment plant Tuesday when the water-loving pup dived in for a swim. No one was hurt, but both parties required extensive bathing afterward, said Kalama Police Chief Bruce Hall. “The officer did his duty in someone else’s doody,” Hall said.

Officer Jeff Skeie was on kennel-cleaning duty at the city’s small animal shelter. Skeie, a former Castle Rock city councilman who has been with the Kalama police force three years, allowed two dogs out of their pens into the fenced yard to exercise and play together. One of the dogs was a young, energetic chocolate Labrador retriever police had picked up as a stray about two weeks earlier. The Lab was scheduled to be adopted out that afternoon. Skeie, strolling the fenced area with that dog and another Lab named Sadie, noticed that the sewage level in the treatment plant’s sewage digester seemed higher than usual. He walked over to investigate.

The digester is a large, rectangular tank of about 12- to 15-feet deep in which city residents’ solid waste is collected and treated. In the digester, bio-solids are given time for micro-organisms to eat any “food” (waste) before further treatment. The digester was at full capacity, according to the city’s waste waster treatment plant operator.



Standing on her hind legs, Sadie put her paws on the 4-foot-high concrete wall and peered over at the pool of sewage 2 feet below, the 45-year-old police officer recounted Wednesday. The chocolate Lab bounded up the steps leading to the digester. Skeie hollered at him to stop, but the dog flung himself joyfully into the brown soup “just like any dog jumping into a swimming pool,” the officer said.

The dog started paddling, but because the tank is pumped with air bubbles, he wasn’t buoyant. Only his head and front paws were visible as he struggled to swim in the foamy liquid.Skeie leaned over the wall on his stomach and managed to grab the sinking dog’s ear. He pulled the dog to the wall and hauled him out by the scruff of the neck, smearing “bio-solids” all over the sleeves of his uniform. Then the wet dog shook himself vigorously, spraying Skeie head to toe in liquid sewage.

The not-so-sweet smelling officer gave himself and the dog a quick rinse at the outdoor faucet before going home for a long shower. About an hour later, the stray dog’s new adoptive owner, Gretchen Procop, arrived to take the chocolate Lab home. She named him “Hershey.”