As all of you know, Valley City has had major flood problems. And now that college has been only internet, I am sure that most of you think you have problems. Well let me tell you that your problems are not anywhere close to the problems that businesses on Central Ave. faced last week. Their problems were crappy, literally!
Last week as the river rose to record highs, the sewer line that runs under the river busted. This is a four foot wide pipe that is one of the major pipes containing sewage in the city. This pipe busted shortly after 9:30 A.M. on Friday.
Once this busted, many downtown businesses had sewage flowing into their basements. Barnes County Historical Society and the Valley City Times Record are just a couple of the businesses affected. There were also a few homes that had sewage seeping into the basements.
Once this happened, there were many important messages that had to be delivered to the public. The mayor of Valley City, Mary Lee Nielson, had to urge all the residents to leave their homes to reside in a safer and more sanitary place. Because of the sewer breaking, there was a mandatory “no water usage” message issued. That meant that not a drop of water could be put into the sewer system.
Once that message got out, another message keeping motorists of the streets to relieve the pressure was issued across the radio. Then people began trying to locate portable toilets so people could use them without putting water into the sewer system.
Well after the sewer breaks and goes into businesses and houses, how do you keep it from continuing to do that? Dump it into the river! That is exactly what happened. Could you imagine what kinds of tests have to be done on the river now? And all of the paperwork that was involved to be able to do this? The Sheyenne River does not just stay in North Dakota, it flows into the Red River and right into Canada!
This was the last thing that had to happen to this disaster stricken area. I am fortunate not to live in Valley City so I did not have to leave my place of residence because of this situation. For those people that did stay in Valley City, it had to be very inconvenient to have to walk down your street to use a porta-potty. I’m very glad that I didn’t have to do that in the middle of the night! How many of you had to use these toilets?
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Ya this spring has been tuff with all the flooding and then the sewers failing i valley city. Valley city will cleaning up for some time after the river recedes. Maybe the town will get a makeover casue after Grand forks floooded they got that nice Cabelas store i think that would be nice for VC.LOL
ReplyDeleteYes this was a crappy situation... pun intended I guess. I did not know that that break in the line was under the river, that is a very big deal for Valley City now. Think of the cleaning that will have to be done and fines that will be assess. This will be a major issue on the state level and federal level as well. As it was pointed out that the river just does not flow in the state but it dumps into the Red River and travels north.
ReplyDeleteWhat a series of unfortunate events for valley city. I think the town has suffered enough as it is already. With the flood crisis and the sewer situation, I mean can it get any worse for the town now. Businesses have also suffered from this whole ordeal.
ReplyDeleteThis summer is going to be a big clean up time for valley city. The town needs to bounce back up over the next couple of months, and its definitely not going to be easy.