(Spirit Lake)– A sewer back-up that affected three homeowners in the Center Lake area in July has the city of Spirit Lake re-starting its “backflow preventer” program.
Under the program, the city pays part of the cost for homeowners to install a check-valve in basement floor drains that prevent wastewater from backing up through them.
The council voted unanimously Tuesday to re-start the program and to make it available city-wide. That was after an original motion making it available to only the three homeowners was amended.
City councilman Steve Balm said it isn’t that he doesn’t want to help the three homeowners, but that he questions the fairness of paying for just those three and not anyone else who may qualify.
To be eligible for the program, a homeowner must provide documentation to the city of a back-up.
The city will make 10-thousand dollars available for the program and will re-evaluate it once the funds are depleted.
Two back-ups occurred in the Center Lake area in July. One was on July 10th which affected three homeowners. Another occurred a short time later, affecting two of the same three homeowners. Dean Dodds of the city’s Water Department told the council Tuesday crews cleaned out the lines and found a big ball of tree roots. He says the lines in that area are currently clear, but he warned there could be future problems because some service lines were incorrectly installed by builders below the flow line in the sewer.
The backflow preventer program was offered previously to a specific area in the city that had a history of back-ups. City officials say a recent program of re-lining sewers in the problem areas has remedied the problem.
