My house was built in 1973, in the new residential development of Lake St. Louis, Missouri. At the time my house was built both of our beautiful lakes were in place and almost the entire (original) basic infrastructure, including of course the sewage system. That sewage system is based on gravity and uses cast iron piping that runs about 10 feet under the bottom of both lakes.
Fast forward to Wednesday night, September 16th, 2015 at the Clubhouse in Lake St. Louis where there is a meeting about these sewers. They have half the ballroom filled with chairs and people are standing along the walls. I stand and sit along a wall and listen to the presentation.
I should say that although I have lived here for 18 years and have tried to be involved the PWSD #2 meetings have never seemed like a good use of my time. And although I live here and had heard about the sewers I do not live on the lake and I had not fully understood what the issue was all about. I had heard that there was a need for “pumping stations” to fix the problem, but I was not sure what the problem was.
So I went to the meeting. We had a host and four “experts”. As I said, the room was packed and the presentations were very informative. I took notes on my I-Phone. I asked a question or two. And I have condensed my notes from the meeting here.
A number of years ago the PWSD wondered what would happen to all of their pipes if there were an emergency. They wanted to do their due diligence and have an emergency plan. And they asked their contractor, Alliance, to help them make that emergency plan.
Alliance looked at the situation and realized they had no idea what the condition of those pipes was or what might happen in the event of an emergency. Nobody is certain exactly where the pipes are and original records are not available or reliable. It is uncertain whether or not there are “access points”.
The large number of variables and unknowns made it impossible to plan for emergencies. And so a plan was devised to basically replace the existing sewer piping system with a new one that would necessarily require some 30 “pumping stations” in resident’s back yards to transfer sewage that previously used the gravity system.
The issue began with a request for an emergency plan. The plan that was proposed fixes a problem that may not actually exist. There is no actual evidence of any problem.
We heard from 4 experts.
The first was Ross Dring. Ross works for the Chicago Water District. Ross reviewed the case and noted:
1) No assessment has been done. {They do not know the condition of the pipes.}
2) Gravity Passive Sewers are preferred. {Plumbing is based on Gravity}
3) You must consider the ongoing cost of the pump stations.
4) Ross felt that the 2012 report was inadequate.
5) More access points to the system are desirable. {Think about the clean-out ports in your home plumbing}
The second speaker was Jim Walls of the Cast Iron Pipe Institute. He is from Garland, Texas where worked on their system. He made the following points.
1) Cast iron is good. Meaning that there is a long history of cast iron pipes used in soil and for sewage systems. The piping would seem to be in about the 45th year of an expected 100 year life.
2) Industry wisdom is that “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. {While this is not always a good motto if you find a system that is maintenance free for many years without problems then by definition it is a well designed system}
3) A review of the records indicates they have never had a stoppage. It appears there is no indication of any actual problem. No changes in flow rates or evidence of material coming or going or backing up or ANYTHING.
The third speaker was Tom Qualls of SAK (who is a Rolla grad). His company does piping restoration where needed with a very interesting method where they invert a “sock” of material and then infuse it with a two component material before injecting it into the existing pipe and “unrolling” the sock into the pipe where it will harden and form an actual pipe itself inside the original. Tom Mentioned:
1) Flow monitoring can indicate a problem. Has not been done.
2) Sinkholes and infusions can indicate a problem. Have not seen any.
3) Backups and overflows indicate a problem. Have not had any.
4) Closed circuit TV can show problems. Has not been done.
5) The process his company performs could work here but there is no indication it is needed.
6) We need to know if there is any problem with the pipes.
Dennis Smith works for a company that does piping inspections. He can inspect the piping. He has cameras that can go thousands of feet.
1) It matters how the pipes were laid out. If the bottom is bumpy, then a camera could get stuck. Is the camera operator then liable? (then they are not going to do it)
2) “There is no way in hell you want a pump station anywhere but the marina”
3) “Gravity is good. The system just needs a little attention”
4) Why would you replace pipes that are working?
5) Other communities are GETTING RID of pumping stations.
6) We DO NEED an emergency response plan.
7) Too many of the engineering documents say “we assume”. There do not seem to be reliable supporting diagrams of the piping.
8) We need access points and can install them but need to “see” the pipes first.
9) Basements are not going to flood. Nothing will ever flow higher than the lake, because it is a gravity system.
And so the message is that we do not need a plan to replace the existing piping with pumping stations. We need more information. We need to take a look at the piping and see what it looks like. THEN we can make an educated decision.
The mayor and a couple of the aldermen were in attendance and although some of them expressed support for the ideas presented they made it clear that legally their hands are tied. Likewise it appears the CA does not have legal jurisdiction. Neither does the county and the state has very little control. The issue is controlled by the PWSD Board. There was one member of the PWSD Board present who was also sympathetic to the idea that we need more information.
I have spoken to some of these elected officials and they agree that there needs to be more investigation before spending a massive amount of money on a solution to a problem that may not exist.
There are meetings planned on October 7th and 8th for the public to listen and make their voices heard. We need for every water customer to get involved and become educated and make sure you understand the issue and who will be voting to do what with your dollars. Whether you live on the lake or not this decision will affect your water rates and property values. We need to make sure our water company makes the right decision.
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