(Des Moines)– The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says many communities hard hit by flooding rains earlier this week were forced to bypass wastewater into lakes, rivers, creeks and streams.
Officials say the cities were forced to take the action to prevent even more wastewater from backing up into homes.
D-N-R officials say the city of Lake Park bypassed wastewater into the West Fork of the Little Sioux River; the Iowa Great Lakes Sanitary Sewer District reported some bypassing into West Lake Okoboji at Hayward’s Bay and Pikes Point due to a power outage. The bypassing ended around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. The city of Spirit Lake also did some bypassing into East Lake Okoboji.
In Clay county, Royal started bypassing into a tributary of the Ocheyedan River around 10:00 p.m. Tuesday.
In Emmet county, Gruver started bypassing from a lift station to help with overloading.
In O’Brien county the city of Hartley reported to the D-N-R it started bypassing around 1:00 a.m. Wednesday into a tributary of the Ocheyedan River; and Sheldon bypassed from its north lift station into the Floyd River.
In Osceola county, Ocheyedan had to pump wastewater from two manholes into the Little Sioux River after its sewer lagoons started to overflow.
And in Palo Alto county, the city of Emmetsburg estimated it had bypassed about 500-thousand gallons of waste water into the Des Moines River; and Graettinger began bypassing into the same river around 3:00 a.m. Wednesday.
