Special Council Meeting March 19

We held a special council meeting on Monday to discuss issues regarding our sewer system. Various issues on that, so it was broken into 3 separate discussions.
1. Sump pumps inspections
2. New Trunk Line
3. Slip lining existing sewer lines.

As for #1, the council agreed to go forth with a sump pump inspection plan for all homes in the city. The reason for this is, we need to keep storm/ground water out of the sanitary sewer system. The DNR wants us to get it out, and if it does get in, we are obligated to treat it, which leads to more cost for larger sewer plants.

So while details are not final, this is the general guideline it will follow when the plan is implemented. Homeowners will have 6 months to arrange for an inspection, and if it fails, to become compliant. The inspection will come from a company hired by the city. A homeowner may choose to not allow an inspection, or to fix an out of compliance sump pump. In that case, there will be a $100 per month charge added to the sewer bill for having an unmetered water hookup to the sanitary sewer system.

Getting sump water out of our sewer system will cut down on flows, and hopefully reduce the possibility of backups in our sewer system. It will also make the DNR happy.

As for #2, as noted on this blog, and in various meetings, the main trunk line for most of the city is undersized and does not slope downhill perfectly in all spots, leading to inefficiencies in flow. This leads to increased backup potential, and limits the growth potential to the city. Parts of it are near 90 years old.

Currently two 12 inch pipes (one from west of the creek, and one from the east side of town, combine into the one 15 inch main, from the pool all the way to the sewer plant. A proposed plan is to replace the 15 inch main with a new 21 inch main--which can handle two 12 inch pipes feeding into it. The original pipe was put in when Roland had around 700 people, so it is doing more work than it was designed for.

There are two ways to get the main to the sewer plant. One is to follow the existing route under Samson Street. To get the right slope, it will need to be dug deep, and down the middle of the street, meaning the street will have to be dug up for a couple months, and then completely replaced. That will cost around 1.2 Million dollars.

Another choice is to take it along the creek bed. With the lower elevation, it does not need to be dug as deep. The problem is that is crosses the private property of 11 different homeowners. This route will cost about $600,000. Obviously we need to get the consent of the homeowners for this project.

The council talked about the need to do the right thing, and upgrade the city's sewer main, which probably should have been done 20 years ago. This will have a positive impact on the citizens along Samson, as this should eliminate the sewer backups they have suffered with over the years. The city also wants to save $600,000, and take the less expensive route.

So the council decided to pursue that option, and will be talking to the homeowners along Samson, and to get an exact and specific location of where the line would be buried, so they will know the plans. Previously any discussions have been more generic as to the route.

I think this will be good for the folks that live along Samson, to help prevent their basements from being temporary sewage holding facilities. I also think we should work with those folks to make sure any construction makes their yards better than prior to work being done, if we can make this project happen.

Part #3 was to discuss slip-lining sewer mains throughout the city. A lot of the sewer system was installed in the 1920s, and the clay tiles are leaky, allowing ground water into the system. Sealing them will help keep ground water out, and refurbish the lines some. We have videoed about 2/3 of the sewer lines in town, and are aware of the worst spots. None are horrible, but proper maintenance would involve starting to slip line the bad spots. It costs about $20,000 a block to slip line a sewer main.

In this case, the council decided to not immediately do any, but continue to budget for the maintenance of the lines, and have our sewer superintendent keep tabs on the bad spots, and fix them as money is available. For the upcoming fiscal year, we did set aside $60,000 for maintenance and upgrades.