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Sept. 29, 1999
Probeof sewerbackupcontinuesSeven homeswere affectedBy GUY PRIEL Journal Staff Writer NEW ULM -- Public Utility Commission officials are still trying to discover the exact cause of the failure of equipment at the wastewater treatment plant last week. The problem caused sewage to back up into seven houses in the South Valley and South Front area. "We are in the process of looking at equipment to see exactly what went wrong," PUC Director of Utilities Robert Stevenson said during a meeting Tuesday night. "We still don't know what happened, and all attempts to duplicate the situation have proved unsuccessful." Officials pinpointed one thing that went wrong with one of the systems, but they have been unable to determine if that was the cause of the problem. "We have added several more monitors to the system, but that is more of a band-aid approach than a permanent solution," Stevenson said. "The control systems already had a system of redundancies built in, but they all failed at once." A homeowner on South Valley Street contacted the PUC around 1 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 22, when his family noticed a backup of sewage into their residence. By the time PUC officials arrived at the sewage plant on 20th South Street, the lights were on, the pumps were off and sewage was up to 5 feet below the top floor on both the dry side and the wet side. "We were pretty much in shock on Tuesday when this initially happened," Stevenson said. "We were not sure what to do at that time. But we are on a pretty good track now and are confident we are moving in the right direction. It was a slow start." Seven homes in the vicinity of South Valley and South Front Street, near the lift station, were affected as sewage backed up through their pipes. Five received extensive damage. "We are getting mixed reactions from homeowners who were affected," Stevenson said. "Three of them are very appreciative of our efforts and have been cooperative with city staff. The other two have a different attitude toward the situation." The League of Minnesota Cities, working with an insurance adjuster, has contracted with an engineer and an attorney to investigate the cause of the problem and the extent of liability for the city. "At first response, it appears we have no liability for the damage," Stevenson said. "But we are hoping to determine some type of liability so there will be insurance available to help the homeowners." The insurance adjustor will help the affected homeowners with any restoration work that will be needed to repair their homes,. But there has been no information received as to the extent of damage at this time, Stevenson said. "Decontamination work has been done in the damaged homes, with carpet and furniture removed and either cleaned or hauled to the dump," Stevenson said. "The houses have been sanitized, hot water heaters have been replaced and one furnace will be replaced soon." The potential for this type of situation exists near every lift station in the city, which is about a dozen locations, Commissioner James Hogen said. Safeguards can be taken to prevent this type of situation from occurring, because one of the homes in the affected area had a check valve on the sewer, which prevented damage. "We don't want this type of thing to happen again," Commissioner William O'Connor said. "Homeowners should be made aware of something that is available."
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