With a temporary fix installed late last week, city officials are watching to see if heavy rain from the weekend will have an effect on a sanitary sewer pipe damaged by flooding last month.
Issues near the South Arundel cul-de-sac were first noticed Wednesday. Work began Thursday and finished Friday. Problems developed with the 36-inch sewer pipe itself, but Assistant City Manager Lane Massey says the streambank was washed out about six to 10 feet behind the anchor point — and with no support, the pipe collapsed.
Massey says the city is working with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to clear a stream advisory in place since Thursday for the Cottonwood at Emporia and connecting tributaries. The city doesn’t have to conduct water samples until permanent fixes are installed, but it could be another week or two before that happens.
An undetermined amount of sewage was going into the stream late last week. Massey says that flow was largely stopped, but the stream level came back up again over the weekend. City officials believe three is water getting through the temporary fix, but the impact of that won’t be known until the water level drops again.
Aside from this situation, Massey tells KVOE listeners the sanitary sewer network held up “pretty good” after the flooding last month. He says there weren’t a lot of structural defects evident in sanitary sewer lines after a video inspection project. There was some damage to the Wastewater Treatment Plant, mainly to recently-installed ultraviolet filters, but those have been repaired or replaced.
