City wastewater treatment plant operators are coordinating repairs to the plant’s screening and grit removal system that suffered major damage during nearly five inches of rain last weekend.
At the Common Council’s public work session Wednesday, Mayor John Lombardi III said the plant is currently “not in compliance” with regulations as it waits for custom-made parts to become available. Cost estimates for the repairs were not released.
“We are weeks away from having the plant back to full capacity,” Lombardi said. “All federal and state agencies we report to are aware of our concerns and the situation.”
In a report provided to Common Council members, Chris Peacock, chief operator of the wastewater treatment plant, outlined the damage and repair needs, which he said are beyond routine maintenance.
Peacock said the screening system that prevents branches, leaves and trash from entering pumping and treatment systems had accumulated damage during heavy rains on July 18, July 19, July 22, and July 28.
“The first screen suffered a catastrophic failure following the storm event on July 18,” Peacock said. “From that point forward, the remaining screens were forced to handle additional flow and debris load that would normally have been shared among all of the units. As a result, the remaining screens were subjected to significantly greater mechanical stress during each subsequent storm event.”
For each of the heavy rains in July and on Aug. 2, Peacock said, “The plant experienced sustained flows exceeding 85 (million gallons per day) for many hours, surpassing the facility’s design capacity. These repeated high-flow events, combined with the loss of the first screen, ultimately resulted in the catastrophic failure of the remaining screens during the subsequent storm event on Aug. 3.”
Marcus Wyche, 2nd Ward alderman, visited the wastewater treatment plant this week, along with Lombardi, Rowland O’Malley, 3rd Ward alderman, and Kathryn Fogle, 4th Ward alderman. Wyche described the screening system as equipment that “combs” water, with screens pulling up regularly to shed debris. A sprocket that runs the chain for hoisting screens had broken in half, he said.
“That’s one of the bigger items that has to be outsourced and made,” Wyche said. “It’s 300 pounds when finished. The plant is still operational, but we’re not catching the bigger debris. The screens can’t go up and down because of the chains. I know for one of the big screens, replacement is over $100,000.”
Mike Marino, CEO of Nussbaumer & Clarke, the engineering firm on retainer with the city, said wastewater treatment plant screens can be more than 50 feet tall and require specialized construction to withstand heavy forces.
Peacock acknowledged that repair costs will be substantial, but “restoring the screening system is essential to protecting millions of dollars of downstream infrastructure.”
Fogle said it was stunning to see the condition of the area around the plant on West Jackson Street following the storm.
“It looked like a war zone with tree trunks lying around and mud and boulders all along the road,” she said, along with trees blocking nearby Eighteenmile Creek.
“They had a road closure coming down Rattlesnake Hill and West Jackson due to damage,” Wyche said. In addition to flooding in areas of Lowertown, Wyche said parts of the 2nd Ward, including Hoover Parkway and Allenview Drive near Donner Creek, were underwater.
“It was a significant impact,” he said.
Niagara County Director of Emergency Services Jonathan Schultz announced Thursday that the New York State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services has released a form to track damages from the heavy rainfall and flash flooding events from July 28-29 and Aug. 2-3.
According to a press release, the form will collect information so officials can develop requests for federal assistance programs. The form is not an application for relief programs, the release said, and it is not a substitute for reporting damage to your insurance agency.
“We recognize some homeowners and businesses incurred some significant damage from the rain and flooding and we want to do all we can to seek relief funds to help them,” Schultz said. “The first step in attempting to secure any funding is being able to produce data on the impact of the storms.”
Schultz asks residents to be as specific as possible on the forms.
To fill out the form, go to https://www.dhses.ny.gov/ and click on “Report Damage.”