Duane Hicks
An excessive amount of groundwater over the weekend required the town’s sewage treatment plant to go into bypass mode and discharge chlorinated wastewater into the Rainy River to relieve stress on its system.
While 70 mm of rain was to blame, the fact some residents still haven’t switched their sump pumps to “summer mode” exacerbated the problem.
“We don’t really care in the winter time that your sump pump is tied to the sanitary sewer but please do your effort here,” Operations and Facilities manager Doug Brown said at last night’s council meeting.
“We had a bypass at the sewage treatment plant over the weekend,” he noted.
“We received three inches of rain, which taxed out the hydraulic loading at the plant.
“We bypassed 1,306 cubic metres of water, which is roughly one-third of a day’s supply of water, into the river,” added Brown.
The town has a bylaw in place stating residents must have their sump pumps in “summer mode” right now in order to prevent rainwater from being discharged into the sanitary sewer system.
This means having your sump pump outputting water four feet from your house and onto the road, where it goes to the curb, into the town’s storm sewer system (catch basins), and eventually into the river.
Back in 2014, when the town had the flooding, Brown noted the area received 195 mm of rain, which is almost eight inches.
So far this June, the area has received 6.85 inches.
“So our ground is really saturated,” Brown stressed. “People’s sump pumps that haven’t been working for 2015 are probably kicking in now.
“So do your part to get the groundwater into the town’s storm sewer system.”
In related news, Makkinga Contracting is making good progress with the first stage of the Colonization Road East project.
They completed a watermain pressure test yesterday, and the line was pickled and ready to be put into service.
Area residents who have been on temporary waterlines should be off them.
The contractor is putting down the granular ‘B’ material on the road.
Work also has started at the intersection of Colonization Road East and Fifth Street East.
Over at Calder Drive, the sidewalk has been redone, two catch basins and storm inlets were installed, and ditching on the north side has been done.
Calder Drive will be surface-treated in early August.
Curb and gutter has been installed at Lillie and Webster Avenues, and some asphalt work is being done there right now.
Meanwhile, line-painting was completed on King’s Highway, from just east of York Avenue to Webster Avenue, last week.
Brown said he has received some complaints about the driving condition of the finished surface on King’s Highway.
He noted the project consultant has been made aware of it and the deficient areas will be dealt with.
Over on Phair Avenue, where Bay City Contractors has been replacing the water and sewer infrastructure between Third and Fifth Street East, a new sidewalk has been put in and granular ‘B’ material placed on the road.
The company now is getting ready to move on to replacing the piping on Phair Avenue between Fifth and Sixth Street East.
The new well has been drilled at the Fort Frances Airport and a new pumping system has been ordered.
It will be installed next week.
In the next month or so, the airport will have its own water supply and the town won’t have to haul water in.
Preparations also are underway at the sewage treatment plant to remove the old de-watering equipment and install new equipment prior to winter.
