Wednesday, November 17, 2004
2004
Blacksburg's public works department is on the prowl for leaky manhole covers and cracked pipes while officials struggle with solutions to the sewer capacity problems at Webb Street.
Schirmer also presented data from sewer flow meters installed around town that points to the Webb Street sewer line near Tech Terrace apartments as a critical overflow area. That line, according to the presentation, can handle 1,695 gallons of sewage per minute. On dry days, the system usually runs at 66 percent of its capacity, or 1,125 gallons per minute.
On wet days, however, sewage flows through the line at 1,756 gallons per minute, spilling out of manholes and into the streams and sometimes the bathtubs and floors of Tech Terrace apartment dwellers.
Jeanne Stosser of SAS Construction owns those apartments and has filed a claim with the town for roughly $23,000 in damages caused by a sewage backup there in 1993.
The town has submitted the claim with Virginia Municipal League, its insurance carrier, but it's unclear if the claim will be paid. Town Manager Gary Huff could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but he told council at a meeting in September that VML might not pay future damage claims if capacity problems continue.
Stosser said Tuesday she has not heard back about her claim, but she believes she can work it out with the town. Though the possibility of a lawsuit has come up at council meetings, Stosser said she has not filed any suit against the town.
The problem at Webb Street is hard to fix because nearly all the sewer waste from the north end of town flows downstream to Webb Street, where it bottlenecks at a 15-inch-wide pipe belonging to Virginia Tech. The town is in negotiations with Tech about possibly splitting the cost of upsizing that line, Schirmer said.
Most of the other sewer lines around town run at or below their capacities, even in wet weather, according to the meter flow numbers in the presentation, but more development could push some lines, such as the one at Harding Avenue, over capacity.
In the short term, public works crews are on the prowl for leaky pipes and manhole covers. The town has not yet started looking for houses or businesses that my have inflow problems, such as roof gutters hooked into the sewer system, but that may be an option later on, Schirmer said.
At Tuesday's meeting, council also looked over the first draft of a request for a proposal that it hopes will attract an out-of-town consultant to study the sewer capacity problems. Council has also held one closed session to discuss appointees to a new citizen utilities committee that would also work on the sewer issues, but to date council has made no formal appointments.
