.jpg)
Last night's special board meeting had several topics and the post will get too long so today I will post the situation with AQUA then tomorrow I will get you up to date on the rest of the meeting.
During the public comment segment a property owner complained about getting sewage in his basement during the recent heavy rains. His comments tied in perfectly with the address to come from Joel Gehrett from AQUA.
Joel reported the amount of rain we received in such a short amount of time overwhelmed the sewer system and a choice had to be made... either let the diluted sewage go into basements or pump the system into ditches, meaning eventually into the lake. They felt the lesser of the two evils was to pump into the ditches. He indicated we were not alone in the situation but that doesn't change the impact of their decision. The plant was being deluged with ten times the normal influx.
He called the IEPA to report the discharge as well as informing our general manager, although by that time the pumping had already started. AQUA took samples of the discharging water for analysis to see the concentration of undesirable material that was being discharged. Obviously the discharge was highly diluted due to the amount of rain water mixed in. To be sure we would get accurate results our G.M. Took it upon himself to take our own samples for analysis as well. To me this was a smart move. The results should come back quickly but as of last night's meeting they were not available from either source.
Obviously there were many questions for Joel. I led off by asking how many times this has happened before here because we have all noticed the pumps running after periods of heavy rains. Joel is fairly new here and has no knowledge or documentation of past situations. Tracy said he has never been informed of such an issue until this one. Next I asked if we have a sealed system how this can happen. Joel indicated they are in the process of sealing joints in the underground system and are three fourths of the way through. They seal the joints then pressure test. He also indicated other sources are allowing water into the system such as people illegally discharging sump pumps into drains, tile leaking from the homes into the system, manhole covers not sealed well enough and water running into them, and other causes. They have to date spent $400,000 trying to seal the system and the work continues.
Jeff Lutzow brought up the alternative of pumping water into the sedimentation pond if this were to happen again and asked if other alternatives have been explored to keep this from happening again. Joel was peppered with more questions from both the board and audience and was very aware of the anger toward his company due to the situation. Karl Steiskal said how ridiculous it seemed to him to have hydrant flushing mere days after the pumping. Frankly there were so many rapid fire questions I could not listen and make notes at the same time.
Suffice it to say the seriousness of the situation as well as the ire of the property owners was not lost on the AQUA representatives.
As this situation progresses I will keep you advised of the outcome. This will not just fade away.
Ken