2000-09-06 Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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Wayne LeBlanc 1677 Peltier Lake Drive ♦ Centerville, MN 55038 651 -426 -0168 (home) 651- 635 -6519 (work) August 8, 2000 City of Centerville I am wondering if there are any actions the City of Centerville can take as a result of the 33,000 gallon raw sewage spill on Clearwater Creek just upstream of Centerville on June 17 and 18. I explained this incident at the Park and Recreation meeting of Aug 7, and Mr. Sweeny suggested the information be presented to the City Councii on Wednesday. I wiii be in St Cloud looking at a BivII track with Park and Rec, but Mr. Sweeny can introduce this information; then, perhaps at this meeting and subsequent meetings, actions might be considered. Please see the Summary and Conclusion below. Summary The July Hugonian newspaper reported two raw sewage spills into Clearwater Creek at the intersection of Cedar and Elmcrest Avenues (upstream, just east of 35E). One was 30,000 gallons on June 17 and the other was 2,000 to 3,000 gallons on June 18. Apparently, 10,000 gallons of raw sewage escaped downstream leaving its mark through Centerville and in Peltier Lake. The Hugoian reported, "since its construction in 1977, this section of the sewer line has broken at least 8 times." Here are questions I think worthy of answers: 1. What were the dates and quantities of the other spills? 2. With 8 sequential failures in the same section of pipe, prevention seems to have been far too low a priority. Will it remain low priority? Can anyone give some assurance that anticipation of such problems will now get high priority? Are there other sections of this or other sewage pipe leaking or about to burst? Has this been investigated, or is the intent to just wait till failures occur? 3. Notification seems non - existent. At the very least, the City of Centerville, the Peltier Lake Association, the Rice Creek Watershed District, the City of Lino Lakes, and the City of Hugo should have been notified the day of the spills. Will that be done in the future? 4. Measurement of consequences seems non - existent. (The only measure mentioned was that fecal coliform bacteria in water samples taken at the site were at background levels on June 22. I would expect such readings where a flow of water from the creek washes away the contamination. But what about the sewage that went downstream? Peltier Lake will act as a basin and hold the sewage, I would expect. Is anyone measuring the consequences of this spill? Are waters downstream safe for normal activities: Can children play in Clearwater Creek? Is it safe to consume fish from Peltier Lake? Is swimming safe in Peltier Lake? How long does it take for a contamination of 10,000 gallons of raw sewage to cleanse itself given the slow turnover rate of Peltier Lake water? Shouldn't measurements be taken to answer these questions? 5. Are there any action oriented procedures that might help Clearwater Creek and Peltier Lake speed decontamination? 6. Is there any legal recourse on this situation? Should the MPCA be involved?