Grand Forks Flooding

MuskyManiac

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Just read in the GF Herald this morning that the city had to pump 700,000 gallons of sewage into the Red River after last weekends 6 inches to keep the wastewater system operational and prevent backup into homes. Normally the system pumps 8-9 million gallons a day. Saturday it pumped 27.8 million gallons, and 14-18 million each of the next three days after that. Holy cow!
 


guywhofishes

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Just read in the GF Herald this morning that the city had to pump 700,000 gallons of sewage into the Red River after last weekends 6 inches to keep the wastewater system operational and prevent backup into homes. Normally the system pumps 8-9 million gallons a day. Saturday it pumped 27.8 million gallons, and 14-18 million each of the next three days after that. Holy cow!

RAW sewage????

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[FONT=&quot]The thunderstorms that pummeled Grand Forks last Friday night and Saturday morning flooded basements, closed roadways -- and pushed the city’s water infrastructure to its limits.
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[FONT=&quot]The city’s stormwater and wastewater systems are separate, but both reached their capacities during the storm, at least partly because excess water flowed into the sewer system once the storm system filled up. With both systems full, city staff early Saturday morning pumped an estimated 700,000 gallons of sewage into the Red River.
“The rain was still coming, pumps weren’t keeping up,” said Wastewater Collections Supervisor Pete Aamold. “What do we do? Chance of more basements flooding or dump some into the river? That was my decision to make, and it’s the right decision in my mind.”
The city reported the sewage it had pumped to the state on Monday, Sept. 23, and warned other municipalities downstream. Aamold said the storm is one of the worst storms he’s seen in his nearly 30 year career, and that the city seldom reaches the point where it has to decide whether or not to pump its wastewater into the river.
“We’d rather store sewage anywhere else than basements,” said Water Works Division Director Melanie Parvey.


On a typical day, the city’s wastewater system pumps 8 million to 9 million gallons. It pumped 27.8 million on Saturday, and 14 million to 18 million each of the next three days, public works staff said.
And, a few miles outside of town, the city’s wastewater treatment plant hit its capacity, too. Workers there on Saturday started diverting water into a holding pond. The plant cleans and filters about 8 million to 10 million gallons of water each day and can handle 12 million to 15 million gallons per day, staff there said.
Plant workers had to handle about 30 million gallons of water on Saturday. They diverted the excess into the pond and have deposited about 80 million gallons of water there since then.
“We’re playing catch-up,” said Lead Operator Frank Kilgore.
He and Lead Operator Stacey Ferdon said the weekend’s storm was the most rainfall they’ve seen in their 14 and 18 years on the job, respectively.




The National Weather Service reported that 5.29 inches of rain fell in Grand Forks fell overnight Friday, Sept. 20, and Saturday, Sept. 21.
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Bfishn

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Oh well, it will just add to the Billions of liters of raw sewage the city of Winnipeg dumps into it every year. And some of you guys eat those RR and Winnipeg walleyes ;:;barf
 

Captain Ahab

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I must say, that puts a small mental damper on fishing the Red right now. That said, the logical portion of my noodle tells me that the GF sewage is probably to Canada right now and it's also probably just a smidge of what Winnipeg sends down the Red. They named it Red because it gets treated like a red headed step-child.
 

guywhofishes

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with the high dilution rates, suspended soil particles, sunlight, decent temps, and excellent aeration this season, that sewage is biodegraded in short order - it’s just happening in the river rather than stabilization ponds

not optimal but no permanent damage

that said - they need to work on prevention systems including homes dumping their sump loads into the sewer system
 

nxtgeneration

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With all that rain water inundating the system it was pretty diluted so I'm sure it looked like a storm sewer discharge rather than sanitary.

I was one of the lucky ones to have spent the weekend tearing out carpet and sheetrock in my basement. It was quite the shocker stepping into ankle deep water in the dark early in the AM.
 


guywhofishes

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With all that rain water inundating the system it was pretty diluted so I'm sure it looked like a storm sewer discharge rather than sanitary.

I was one of the lucky ones to have spent the weekend tearing out carpet and sheetrock in my basement. It was quite the shocker stepping into ankle deep water in the dark early in the AM.

my sincere condolences - that has to be so awful to deal with

I've only had wet carpets - no sewage - drywall survived - and it was still AWFUL
 

tikkalover

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Meh, its no big deal, those Canadians will drink anything. ;:;rofl ;:;boozer
 


ndlongshot

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You sure hate farmers don’t you

3f2.jpeg
 

Maddog

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You don't know what gross is until you have your sewer water backed up into your bath tub . . .

Been there. Don't wish that upon anyone else.
 

Sum1

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Where are da water protectors when you need dem?!

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“Water is life”
 


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