[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
The green sewage warning signs were evident at several of the storm sewer outlets. Does anyone have an update on the status of the efforts to separate the sanitary and storm sewers? How much is completed and how much is still left to do? Although, there had not been a heavy rain recently, there was still a distinct sanitary sewer odor at some of the outlets. Why would this be? Are there some sanitary lines that are constantly leaking or have an open air connection into the storm sewer system?
The city's web site has quite a bit of information on this problem of sanitary sewers flowing into the storm sewers. The official position is that they have been 95% separated at the time of the writing. There is a 5 year plan, passed in 2002, and begun in 2003 to completely separate them by 2007. We will see.
Here the city's web address for this topic:
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cso/
I know from first-hand accounts and photographs that both Minneapolis and St. Paul have a real problem with their subterranean sewer "cities." There are lots of places where there are leaks, obscure and puzzling connections and "intersections" of the two systems where one can overflow into the other, primarily in the sanitary to storm direction.
And it's not like the storm sewers themselves are a model of cleanliness. The amount of pollutants that get spilled, dumped or intentionally poured into the streets to be washed into the storm sewers is horrendous.
Everybody does know it is ILLEGAL to sweep, rake or blow their LEAVES into the street, right?
Same goes for common household things like fertilizer, pesticides, gasoline, oil, and so forth.
I was just at the Minnehaha Creek outlet into the Mississippi on Saturday. About a hundred yards south is a large storm sewer outlet. Ugly, stinky and strangely pouring as much water into the Mississippi as Minnehaha Creek itself. Now, it's been dry for days, so where is that stuff coming from?
Bleagh.
Chris Johnson - Fulton
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