Wastewater containing animal fecal matter from the Animal Quarantine Station spilled into Halawa Stream last week, the Department of Health reported Monday.

Warning signs to keep out went up Monday along the stream, which winds through a residential area in the Salt Lake-Foster Village area, the Health Department said.

The city Department of Facility Maintenance was first alerted Thursday by a staff member of the U.S. Geological Survey who noticed a sewage smell while surveying the stream last week, said Stuart Yamada, state DOH Environmental Management Division chief.

He said the staff person noticed the odor from time to time over the past two to three weeks.

He said both the city and the state have jurisdiction and are investigating the matter.

The spill came from the quarantine’s well, which was built to hold the waste and the wash-down from the facility’s kennels. The kennels have the capacity to house 1,700 animals but now house about 200 to 300 animals, said Scott Enright, director of the Department of Agriculture.

The Department of Agriculture is working to fix a broken pump that pushes the wastewater up into the city’s sewage system, Enright said.

The department became aware of the problem Friday,and began working with a contractor to fix the problem, he said. But an additional leak broke out sometime between late Sunday and early Monday.

“It appears tree roots have gotten underground electrical lines that deal with sewage from animal quarantine,” Enright said, citing information he said came from the electrical contractor.

“We were waiting for the electrical work, and we needed to go to procurement because of the overall cost of repair,” he said.

But now that it’s an emergency, the state is skipping the procurement process and bringing in an electrical contractor to fix the electrical lines and another contractor to fix the pump.

Enright said the solid waste goes to the bottom of the well, and “it was basically just fluids that ran off.”

He said his staff has advised him that it doesn’t appear there was any human waste in the spill.