The impact of this weekend’s torrential rains continues to be felt across Michigan’s Great Southwest. With anywhere from 4 1/2 to more than 8 inches of rain spanning the region from Berrien to Van Buren and Kalamazoo Counties few people were not affected in some manner whether it was with rained out sporting events and other outdoor dealings or flooded streets, yards and neighborhoods.
According to the National Weather Service the most significant rainfall total topped 8.5-inches in a portion of Van Buren County which washed out a section of the Briggs Mill Dam in Paw Paw, and the sanitary sewer system overflowed into the Black River at South Haven.
Paw Paw Village officials have been keeping close tabs on water levels, and said that despite the washout of one section of the dam, they didn’t feel that properties downstream would necessarily be flooded as work crews successfully opened a spillway in order to ease the mounting pressures of the free flowing waters.
Roman Plaszczak is President of the Village of Paw Paw and one of his main concerns was the contaminants from the mill pond, but he also indicated that they were no in high enough concentrations to be an issue.
Engineers were slated to re-evaluate the condition of the damaged dam and how best to repair the more than 113-year old structure. The washout also took out a portion of the pedestrian bridge over the dam, and that pathway will not re-open for the foreseeable future.
Meanwhile, the City of South Haven experienced a sanitary sewer overflow into the Black River. That overflow started at 10:30pm on Saturday, October 14, 2017 and ended at 1:00am on Sunday, October 15, 2017. The overflow occurred on Dunkley Avenue, approximately 300 ft north of Dyckman Avenue.
The overflow was caused by inflow and infiltration into the wastewater collection system upstream from the Main Lift Station. South Haven city officials tell us that older sanitary sewers throughout portions of the collection system are susceptible to inflow of storm water during heavy rainfall and/or snow melt periods. As the additional water moves downstream in the collection system, it must be pumped at various locations. At the time of the overflow the pumps at the Main Lift Station were unable to keep up with the large quantities of storm water flowing through the wastewater collection system.
Excess flow which cannot be handled by the pumps overflows into the Black River by way of a storm drain located in Dunkley Street.
A total of approximately 10,000 to 13,000 gallons of diluted wastewater overflowed into the storm drain and the Black River. City staff say they will continue to monitor the situation and file reports on the discharge with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the Van Buren County Health Department.
The City is currently constructing new interceptor sewers, a new main pump station, and an equalization basin to address the overflows that occasionally occur at that location. Those improvements are anticipated to cost in excess of $11-million and will be significantly completed by the end of this year.
Also impacted over the weekend, storms truncated a number of Western Michigan University’s Homecoming celebrations. The university’s Stampede Tailgate was a total wash out, and their homecoming game with Akron was forced to be canceled and reset for 1 pm Sunday due to the sheer volume of water that poured into the Bronco’s home stadium. One set of stairs there looked like Niagara falls at the height of the storm’s aftermath as water cascaded onto the playing field.
Crews ended up employing large vacuum trucks that worked through the night and reported pumping more than a million gallons of rain water out of the stadium.
