(Wahpeton)– Officials with the Iowa Great Lakes Sanitary District say they’ve found the likely cause of the ongoing issues with the overloaded sewer system in areas very near the lakes. Superintendent Steve Anderson says crews have found many instances in which floor drains in homes, garages, basements and crawl spaces that either have ground water in them or are covered in flood water. Anderson says that water is over taking the sewer system in some locations around the Iowa Great Lakes.
Anderson says they’re asking people that have flood water in their garages, house, basement crawl space, storage shed or other structures to plug those drains either with a twist plug or put a sandbag over the drain.
He says in one case in Wahpeton the water in the sewer was matching the elevation of the lake. Anderson says in that situation there was only lake water in the sewer system. He says crews pumped the lake water out to find the issues.
Anderson says there are some weekend homes they have not been able to gain access to look at the drains. He says once those are plugged they should be able to restore the sewer service to that area.
Anderson adds that if they can’t get all the drains found in these areas, they will be unable to restore sewer service until lake levels recede.
