Flooding in late June did at least $400,000 in damage to Arkansas City’s sewer lines and total damage is likely to total much more, a city official said Friday. The city is in the process of finding out the extent of the damage.
“We know of $400,000 in damage, that’s to a secondary line,” City Manager Doug Russell said. “We’re still needing to send a camera into the main line.”
Funds dispersed through the Federal Emergency Management Agency are expected to fund 75 percent of any repair or replacement work and more money could come from the state. Russell said the city can fund the rest of the work through sewer reserve funds.
“There will be no tax increase or increase in user fees,” he said. “We can handle it with our reserve funds.”
Sinkholes visible above ground were the first sign that a main line was seriously damaged, Russell said. The city is working with FEMA to arrange sending a camera into the line for damage assessment.
Though the line is likely to be extensively damaged, workarounds in the system have enabled the city’s wastewater treatment system to operate in its usual manner.
The main line is an older one and the potentially collapsed area runs somewhere between south Summit and the wastewater treatment plant on the south end of Ark City, Russell said.
Heavy rains and rising water infiltrated the city’s wastewater system and pushed water levels well above normal. Ordinarily, about 1.3 million gallons per day are treated in Ark City and the system is designed to process up to four million per day.
On June 29, when flooding was at its worst, the Ark City plant had over seven million gallons come in.
Russell said damage to the city’s sewer system was far and away the most serious damage done by the flooding in Ark City.
