(Spirit Lake)– This past weekend’s heavy rains resulted in the city of Spirit Lake and the Iowa Great Lakes Sanitary District bypassing untreated wastewater into the Iowa Great Lakes.
According to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the Iowa Great Lakes Sanitary District began bypassing from a lift station at Triboji Beach into West Lake Okoboji at 6:00 a.m. Sunday. Officials say about two thousand gallons of wastewater was pumped into the lake before the bypass ended around 12:30 that afternoon.
The DNR says the Sanitary District also pumped wastewater from a manhole into East Lake Okoboji between 10:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Sunday.
DNR officials say the city of Spirit Lake discharged an unknown amount of wastewater from a manhole which flowed to a storm sewer that connects to East Lake Okoboji from 7:30 a.m. to Noon Sunday. The city also pumped an unknown amount of wastewater from additional manholes to storm sewers that reach East Lake Okoboji from 7:30 a.m. Sunday until 6:30 a.m. Monday.
Officials say they had to divert the wastewater to prevent it from backing up into homes.
Bypasses were reported in a number of other northwest Iowa cities.
