Prudent infrastructure investments pay off for Sioux Falls as services handle record rain. Compared to an event five years ago the numbers support the claim.

Many Sioux Falls residents recall being told to stop using water because of a sewer system failure after heavy rains in August of 2010. The collapse of a main sewer line in the northern part of the city had the potential of backing wastewater into thousands of homes.

The actual number ended up being in the hundreds. Nonetheless, City officials made a difficult decision to send untreated wastewater into the Big Sioux River to avoid a large scale health crisis.

Thursday night’s storm brought more water through the system and Trent Lubbers of Public Works says the subsequent upgrades to the pipes at a cost of over $60 million produced dramatically improved results. “In 2010 at the Tuthill Lift Station, we were running flow levels of about 10,000 gallons per minute and we were starting to overflow. (During the storm) we got close to 17,000 gallons per minute.”

Lubbers says comparing the amount of sewer backups then to now is proof of a better system that’s in place. “In 2010 we were talking about hundreds of backups in the City. (By Friday morning) we only had three calls for sewer backups in an area of town where we believe it was related to a basement collapse that allowed surface water to get into the sanitary sewer system.”

Additionally no untreated waste water was sent directly into the Big Sioux. Mayor Mike Huether oversaw the first crisis soon after taking office in 2010 and touts the progress made since then. “We keep learning, we keep growing, we keep investing, we keep fighting, because we know there’s another event like this that’s going to happen. When that happens we will be ready.”

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