Niles sewers in bad shape, council told

NILES — Consulting engineers have told the city that some of its concrete sanitary sewer pipes are failing and repairs are urgently needed.

Such a project is expected to cost $1.85 million.

Robin Liss and Thomas Ungar, engineers with MWH Americas, Cleveland, said Wednesday that tests and television monitoring have detected serious problems such as broken pipes, heavy corrosion and infiltration of storm water into the sanitary sewer system.

“The corrosion is so bad you can put a pen in the pipe and the pipe will crumble,” Liss said.

Among the locations requiring immediate repairs due to heavy corrosion are Wade Street and East Drive near Fairhaven School.

Another concern is the amount of storm water entering the city’s interceptor sewers resulting in neighborhood flooding. Ungar said Niles could run into trouble with the Environmental Protection Agency if it doesn’t do something about it.

“You have a lot of water in the system that shouldn’t be there,” Ungar told city council. “The EPA doesn’t like that and they’ll make you get rid of it or control it.”

Read more in Thursday’s Vindicator and vindy.com