Mystic ― More than week after a sewer line break in Mystic, oyster farmers are still feeling the loss.

“It’s a week of sales,” said Steve Plant, owner of Connecticut Cultured Oysters, a Mystic River shellfish farming company based in Pawcatuck, said on Friday.

The Dec. 28 break released 23,000 gallons of raw sewage into the area of Route 1 near the Mystic train station, some of which made it into a storm drain, causing shell fishing in the area to be shut down.

“Every business runs on cash flow, and if you interrupt cash flow … what can you say? That would hurt any business,” Plant said.

Daniel Smith, Stonington Water Pollution Control Authority director, said a fitting in a manhole on Broadway Extension broke at 9:15 a.m. Dec. 28 causing raw sewage to flow onto the street and surrounding area.

Smith said a Connecticut Department of Transportation employee notified the town of the break and WPCA immediately shut down pumps and opened valves at the treatment facility to allow the sewage to run back into the plant, effectively stopping sewage from flowing out of the manhole.

He said Veolia, the WPCA contract operator, responded to the area to make repairs and used vacuum trucks to clean up standing water and sprayed water on the area to eliminate remaining sewage. All work was completed by 3 p.m. the same day.

Smith said the 23,000-gallon estimate was calculated based on the size and length of the pipe and the flow rate at the time of the break. He said some of that sewage did enter Pequotsepos Cove through a storm drain in the parking lot of the Mystic train station which flows into the cove near Sea Swirl restaurant.

The department notified The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the Connecticut Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Aquaculture, resulting in the closure of shell fishing in the area.

“The Connecticut Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Aquaculture closed the Stonington and Groton conditionally approved (CA) waters and approved waters out of precaution following the December 28 sewage spill. We are testing shellfish samples to determine the impact and, upon analysis of results, will decide if additional testing is required or reopen the waters,” said Rebecca Eddy, director of communications for the Department of Agriculture.

More than a week into the closure, Mystic River oyster farmers and the shell fishing industry are at a standstill until the Bureau of Aquaculture reviews testing data and allows shell fishing to resume.

Plant said testing was conducted on Thursday, and he anticipated reopening when results were available on Saturday. He noted that the Mystic River Estuary contains hundreds of millions of gallons of water and estimated that at least 30% of the water is flushed daily, but public health is paramount.

“It’s insignificant, but what it does go to show you is the level of concern and caution that shellfish regulators take to protect the public,” he said.

Plant said the industry faced closures earlier in December as well after the region experienced significant amounts of rain.

More than 3 inches of precipitation triggers a mandatory shutdown and Plant said he anticipates another in the next several days, with sizable storms predicted for Sunday and Tuesday.

“When they’re one off, they’re not a big deal. When you cluster them, they become a big deal, and we’ve had a lot of closures,” he said.

Plant noted that he has only seen this level of closures one other time in 20 years, but chalked it up to “mother nature,” and the nature of the industry.

“Do we want to be closed? No. Do we want to keep the public safe? Absolutely,” he said.