(Milford)– If you have a sump pump in your basement, chances are it’s been getting a work out lately after all the rain we’ve been getting. And if you’re not certain as to where it’s discharging, you might want to find out. Steve Anderson, Superintendent of the Iowa Great Lake Sanitary District tells KUOO news they’ve been seeing higher flows at their treatment facility since the rains began earlier this spring…
“We are seeing increased flows, more flows than what we would expect to see and so we know that there’s illegal connections out there. We’ve been working on it even during the drought years. We were finding sump pumps through camera inspections in the public sewer system. We’re continuing to do that work ourselves and are willing to come and look at people’s properties and find out if they’re connected illegally or not and then give them a timeframe to get that disconnection done.”
Anderson says the increased volume of water they have to treat is a problem in several different ways…
“Groundwater that gets pumped in there has to get treated just the same as the wastewater does, and so that increases the cost for us to treat wastewater. It also creates issues here at the wastewater plant for trying to manage that water that does need to be treated. It also can take away capacity for other future homes and things like that and so all of that groundwater getting into the sewer system causes a multitude of issues that, we just need to get this stuff out of the sanitary sewer and get it into the streets or get it into the storm sewer system.”
Anderson says ultimately it could also result in your sewer bill going up in the event the Sanitary District has to add capacity and equipment. He adds that overloading the system can also lead to sewage back ups into homes and overflows that could wind up in the lake.
