(Orleans)– Officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources say a collapsed sewer line resulted in some 21,000 gallons of wastewater getting into the southeast side of Big Spirit Lake this (Wed.) morning.
Bryon Whiting of the DNR’s field office in Spencer tells KUOO news a resident of Orleans reported seeing wastewater coming out of a manhole shortly before 8:00 a.m. in the 13700 block of Sunset Drive.
Upon arriving, crews with the Iowa Great Lakes Sanitary District discovered a pipeline below a manhole had collapsed, resulting in the wastewater flowing into a storm sewer that empties into Big Spirit Lake about 1,400 feet northeast of Orleans Beach.
Whiting says crews managed to stop the discharge in less than an hour. He says crews are currently working to repair the line.
Whiting says DNR crews are testing water samples from the affected area. In the meantime he’s recommending people stay out of the water in that part of Big Spirit Lake over the next 48 hours out of fears of possible e-coli contamination. He says they hope to have results of the tests sometime Thursday.
As of early this (Wed.) afternoon Whiting says there had been no signs of any adverse ecological affects.
