Deluge spreads raw sewage across the valleys

Children are being warned about playing in contaminated storm waters.
VINDICATOR STAFF REPORT
There's no doubt raw sewage is spilling into creeks, roads and basements across the Mahoning and Shenango valleys as treatment plants are overwhelmed by the recent deluge.
How much is unclear, and there's little anybody can do about it, said Kara Allison, spokeswoman for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
Sewer plants are allowed to dump untreated overflows into local waterways in emergency cases such as this week, she said. Only plants that have had recent upgrades have equipment to measure how much overflow is going untreated, she said.
The practice is allowed because forcing backups would stress treatment equipment beyond the breaking point, she said. That would shut down treatment plants for days and cost far more to repair than the relative environmental toll, Allison said.
"You have to weigh the pros and cons," Allison said. "Is it a good thing? No. But ... then you're getting bigger problems."
Warning issued
Emergency management agencies across the region are warning parents and children about the hazards of playing in contaminated water.
The OEPA is monitoring sewer plants around Northeast Ohio for problems, Allison said.
Tuesday, a treatment facility in Brookfield was down for a time but has resumed operation, she said.
Tom Angelo, director of Warren's water pollution control center, said this week's rains forced the plant to discharge partially treated water into the Mahoning River for the first time since 1986.
The process, called bypassing, started about 7 a.m. Wednesday. The treatment plant usually sees about 12 million gallons per day, but the heavy rains brought more than six times the usual volume.
Angelo estimated that about 25 percent of the plant's water volume was bypassed. That amount was reduced through Wednesday and stopped that same night.
Important organisms
The water that was discharged still received partial treatment, he said. The bypassing was necessary because without it, the plant ran the risk of losing its population of one-cell organisms used in the second phase of treatment.
The organisms eat contaminants in the water during the second treatment phase.
If those organisms had been washed away because of the heavy rain, it would have taken weeks for them to rebuild, Angelo said.
In Youngstown, the deluge increased the amount of sewage its treatment plant is handling to 100 millions gallons a day, said Larry Gurlea, plant superintendent.
The plant treats 24 million to 28 million gallons per day when the weather is dry; 60 million to 70 million gallons a day normally pour in after heavy rain, he said.
He didn't know how much overflow was going untreated.
Here was the problem
Usually, the storm sewer system -- about 70 percent of it is combined with sanitary sewers -- recovers within a day or so of heavy rain. This week, however, the rain hit every 12 hours or so, meaning flooding happened shortly after the raindrops resumed, Gurlea said.
He said the sewer plant hasn't see this much water in the 22 years he's worked there.
Sewer workers managed to keep a pump station on the bank of the Mahoning River from becoming swamped, Gurlea said. Sandbags and two days of round-the-clock monitoring kept the pump station, which serves the West Side, operating and "out off the river," he said.
His crews have spent days unplugging drain pipes once residents discover the water won't recede after the rain stops. Otherwise there isn't much they can do, Gurlea said.
The tornado that blew through the East Side on Monday narrowly missed the sewer plant on Poland Avenue, avoiding a catastrophe. The 100 mph winds blew down a 100-foot section of cinder block wall at nearby Omega Door Co.
Gurlea was amazed that the funnel spared the plant.
"I was thinking Newton Falls all over again," said Gurlea, who grew up there and experienced the deadly, high-powered tornado in 1985 that ripped into the area.
What happened in Sharon
In Sharon, Monday's storm sent the rising Shenango River right into the sewer plant.
"We got flooded out," said Mayor David O. Ryan.
Officials said the plant suffered as much as $100,000 in damage when flood waters submerged a set of three pumps used to remove debris from the system before the sewage is treated.
There also was damage to water-testing equipment as a result of high water and a lightning strike, officials said.
Cleanup after the flooding will cost an estimated $5,000.
"None of this stuff is covered by insurance," said Michael Gasparich, city finance director.
rgsmith@vindy.com