(Spirit Lake)– The Spirit Lake city council Tuesday voted to re-institute the city’s backflow preventor program. The program will remain in effect until the end of the year, or for as long as the $10,000 that’s been allocated for the funding holds out. The program will be made available city-wide. In the past it had been limited to only certain parts of the city.
The action comes on the heels of flooding rains earlier this month that flooded basements of some homes with sewage.
But some are questioning the effectiveness of the devices. One man who lives in the Center Lake area who has a backflow preventor told the council it didn’t prevent raw sewage from backing up into his home following heavy rains July 14th. Several other residents of the Center Lake area said they experienced back-ups as well, adding it’s been an ongoing problem there over the years.
But City Administrator Mark Stevens says it wasn’t just that area of town that was affected July 14th. He says the city was pumping water out of sanitary sewers in atleast five other areas of the city.
Councilman Steve Balm, who said he had sewage back up into his own home, says all that excess water that’s getting into the system has to be coming from somewhere. He blames it on infiltration due to old sewer mains in some areas of the city, along with sump pumps that he says are illegally hooked into the sanitary sewer system. He says the excess water from those factors is overloading the sewers.
The issue of policing sump pump discharges is being referred to the city’s Utility Committee for further review, including the possibility of smoking the city’s sanitary sewer system to pinpoint the locations of illegal hook-ups.
It was the concensus of the council the city should continue to pursue previously planned drainage improvements in the Center Lake area to try to address the issue in that area.
