RALEIGH – Public utility officials have solved the mystery behind a purported “sewer creature” seen in an online video taken under Cameron Village in Raleigh.
Local bloggers at New Raleigh picked up on the YouTube video after it was posted on the Gawker science fiction blog io9.com. The video shows a sewer camera inspecting a pipe under Cameron Village on April 27. The camera stops to focus on several pulsing sacs clinging to the crevices in the pipe.
Ed Buchan, environmental coordinator at the Raleigh Public Utilities Department, said staff biologists have confirmed that the “creature” is actually a colony of tubifex worms. The colonies attach themselves to roots that gradually work themselves into weak points in the pipes.
“They seem to respond to the light from the camera,” Buchan said. “That light is pretty hot.”
The worms naturally occur in sewage and pond sediment and are actually sold both live and dried as fish food in pet stores.
He said other staff members in the department have seen it before, although sightings aren’t particularly common. To read more and see the video, click here…
