Pictured above, flood water has covered the pumps and pump station for sewage treatment in Milford Center. Village officials estimate they have about 24 hours of reserve capacity and are asking residents to reduce sewage usage. Officials from Milford Center and Marysville, which owns and operate the pumps, say they hope that within 24 hours, the floodwaters will go down and they will be able to get the pumps working again.
(Photo submitted)
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Milford Center residents are being asked to reduce their sewage use until further notice.
Village officials issued an emergency notice Friday afternoon.
“The creek (Big Darby) flooded our pump system,” Milford Center Administrator Chris Kise said. “We are not in very good condition until the creek goes down.”
He said that while the system is not in good shape, “there is no chance of spill over, no chance of anything bad happening.”
Kise said the area has received a lot of rain. Additionally, he said, Logan County has received even more rain. He said he’s learned that as Logan County floods, “that’s the water we are seeing in Big Darby and Milford Center.”
Kise said flood water has covered the pumps, which are owned and operated by the City of Marysville. Milford Center contracts with Marysville for sewage treatment. City officials said Milford Center owns the actual sewers but the pumps and the pump station belong to Marysville. Marc Dilsaver, project manager for the City of Marysville, said the water has caused a short in the pump station’s electrical system. He said city crews will be monitoring the water levels in the area throughout the night. Once the water begins to recede and there is a place for crews to pump the flood water, a backup generator, already onsite and on standby, will be installed. He said that generator will be used, “until we are able to identify and fix what needs fixed to get it running again.”
Kise said that until the waters go down, however, it would be best for village residents to limit sewage use. He said the system has a 100,000-gallon capacity tank servicing 388 customers and representing an estimated 850 actual users. The administrator said that based on averages, the village has about 24 hours of capacity before the pumps will need turned on.
“Hopefully in 24 hours, the water has gone down and we can get the pumps turned on, but we want to be able to hold off if we need to,” Kise said.
He said it would be up to each household to decide if and how it wanted to reduce use.
“We live in America, not a socialist country, so we aren’t telling people how to live, we are just asking them to use caution about how they use water — maybe no laundry and no unnecessary use.”
Kise said the village has seen, “a lot of precipitation the last eight months.”
He said this storm has been extremely difficult.
“I have lived at the same property for 50 years and I have never seen it this high that I remember,” Kise said.
Marysville City manager Terry Emery said that while Milford Center’s system is “in limbo till the water goes down and we can get the back-up generator in there, the city (Marysville) is fine. It is in good shape.”