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News
Sewage backs up into Oswego basements : News : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisSewage backs up into Oswego basements
| Power failed at Fox Metro lift station near Sudbury Circle; clean-up underway
| by John Etheredge
| 10/29/2009
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A contractor for the Fox Metro Water Reclamation District was working this week to clean the basements of ten Oswego duplexes following a raw sewage back-up.
Jeff Humm, engineering supervisor for Fox Metro, said the sewage backed up into basements of duplexes in the 500 block of Sudbury Circle due to a power failure at a nearby sanitary lift station owned by Fox Metro.
The lift station is part of a system that pumps waste water for treatment to Fox Metro's plant off Ill. Route 31, just south of Montgomery.
Humm said the amount of sewage that backed up into the basements ranged from 18 inches to less than a quarter inch near floor drains.
"The amount varied depending upon the elevation of the basement floors," he said.
The first call to Fox Metro concerning the back up came at about 9 a.m. Friday, according to Humm.
A Fox Metro staffer went out to the lift station and restored power and the basements drained, but by that time the damage had already been done.
Humm said Fox Metro immediately hired a private clean-up firm, ServePro, to clean the basements.
"They came out on Friday and they started with the removal of the things in the basements that were porous, like the drywall and carpeting. We've also replaced several water heaters that were affected by it as well," he said.
Humm said Fox Metro officials appreciate the patience of homeowners during what he described as a "trying time."
He added, "It certainly was not anticipated that this would ever happen and we are appreciative of the homeowners cooperation in getting things restored back to normal."
As of Monday afternoon, Humm said the clean-up effort was continuing.
"We are still in the process and will continue in the next couple of days of cleaning, sterilizing and disinfecting those affected homes," he said.
Humm added that Fox Metro is also compiling an inventory of personal property in each of the basements that was damaged.
"Obviously, our insurance company is going to have to get involved in this and make a determination on the replacement of those items," he said. "They will be contacting the homeowners in the near future."
Lisa Snider, one of the homeowners, said she was at work last Friday morning in Naperville when she was called by a neighbor who told her of the sewer back-up and suggested she come home to check her basement.
Upon arriving at home, Snider said she found sewage in three rooms of her finished basement: a bedroom, a bathroom and a storage room.
Snider said the ServePro crews have done a "fabulous job" in cleaning up her basement, but she expressed concern with Fox Metro and whether the agency will make good on promises to restore her basement to its original condition.
"I don't have a lot of material damage, but my biggest gripe is that I want my walls knocked down. I don't want them to cut out just three feet of drywall up (from the floor)," Snider said.
Referring to herself and her neighbors, Snider said, "Not one of us has asked for a dime. We don't want anything over what we had before. We just want things fixed to the way they were. When I finished that basement, I didn't go and buy wood that had been in sewage."
She added, "I don't want anything more than what any other taxpayer would want if this happened in their homes. They would want it cleaned and to know that they, their children and their pets are safe. That's all people want."
Humm said it will be "judgment call" by the insurance company as to how much each homeowner will receive in compensation.
"That's the hardest part and something we will have to work through," he said.
Cause of power fail
still under investigation
Humm noted that the pumping station is 13 years old and the power failure was the first experienced at the station in the 10 years he has been with Fox Metro.
Humm said the cause of power failure is still under investigation.
"We want to take the steps necessary to make sure that it doesn't happen again," he added.
"What happened Friday was a combination of something causing the circuit breakers to trip the motors off," he said, adding, "All of our lift stations are on telemetry systems so they can be monitored from one location. They are monitored at the plant during the day during the week and then nights and weekends they are monitored from a laptop computer by a person on call. Somebody is watching them 24/7."
As part of the telemetry system, Humm said there is a radio antenna at each lift station.
"If there is an electrical problem at any of the lift stations, we're connected so it sends us a signal and an alarm and we know there is a problem," Humm said, adding, "So what we had here was a two system, simultaneous failure of the telemetry system and the radio signal system. That's why we didn't know we had a problem until we got that first call about a back-up."
Humm said the pump station may have been shutdown for 12 hours before the first back-up was discovered.
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