Democracy on the Front Lines
City Administrator’s Blog
Walter Denton
March 19, 2008
According to the rain gauge at the Wastewater Treatment Plant, we received five inches of rain yesterday. While not as severe as the 11.45 inches in Cape Girardeau and other areas south of us, we experienced significant rainfall that taxed our systems.
Creeks were swollen and many streets collected large puddles. Public Works crews were out all night addressing flooding issues, including drainage systems and pump stations.
One of the biggest problems during large rain events is the amount of stormwater infiltration into our sewer system. Our Wastewater Treatment Plant maxed out last night due to the large amount of stormwater flowing through the sewer pipes into our plant.
The infiltration in our older sewer pipes around downtown can cause sewer backups in homes and businesses because there is too much volume in the sewer mains. The extremely flat terrain in the old part of town also contributes to the problem: many of the homes’ sewer laterals do not have much fall between the house and the sewer main and are more susceptible to sewer backups.
As a result, our crews utilize portable pumps to pump the water out of the sewer main and into the storm drain. Known as “bypass pumping,” we began pumping yesterday afternoon and continued through the day today. Since there so much stormwater in the sewer main, the sewage is diluted to an extent that it is not harmful to the storm drains.
While it is not ideal for us to pump into the storm drains, we believe it is more acceptable than causing numerous sewer backups for our residents. We have conducted several studies over the years to investigate the magnitude of the infiltration and the cost to remediate the problem is far beyond what our sewer rates can handle.
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