Rainfall Threatens Main Sewer Line

Spokane came close to spilling half its sewage into the Spokane River on Thursday.

A morning rainfall blitz almost caused a main sewer line near the city’s treatment plant to burst.

“If that were to wash out, we’d jump back in time to 1957 when the sewage went in the river,” said Bill Peacock, Wastewater Department senior engineer.

Spokane was pounded with about an inch of rainfall, according to the National Weather Service.

Scattered thunderstorms flooded basements and stalled cars across the city as workers raced to respond to call after call.

“We must have got 150 to 200 calls,” Peacock said.

The 54-inch-wide sewer line that nearly failed about 10 a.m. is usually about one-third full. But a torrent of sewage-laced storm water funneling into the pipe lifted a manhole lid and washed out a hillside hugging Aubrey L. White Parkway.

It took just 90 minutes for the spill to carve a channel 30 feet wide and about 8 feet deep, Peacock said.

But it could have been much worse.

“If the storm would have continued for a couple more hours we would have lost that pipe and had a major catastrophe,” Peacock said.

Some parts of town were drenched worse than others.

North of the Maple Street Bridge, streets were swimming in 8 inches of standing water.

Cars were forced to navigate through over-the-curb water at Third and Lincoln. At Eighth and Walnut, 1-1/4 inches of rain fell in three hours, according to the weather service.

Hillyard was slapped with nearly an inch of rain that fell in just 20 minutes.

It was the heaviest downpour Jim Smith had seen in 30 years as an engineer with the city Street Department.

Tons of mud piled up at the bottom of Doomsday Hill near T.J. Meenach Bridge when a manhole overflowed about a quarter-mile away.

Crews worked all day to clear away the crud and rebuild an eroded bank north of the bridge.

One lane on Meenach Drive will be closed today while the bank is being repaired.

Volunteers at the American Red Cross office on West Nora found themselves bailing about three inches of raw sewage out of their basement.

“I looked out the window, and I thought it looked kind of like a river,” said Joyce Cameron, Red Cross development director. “I looked again and I thought, ‘What happened to that river?”’

The river, she quickly discovered, was flowing into the Red Cross basement.

Ruined were two display cases worth $2,000 apiece, 6,000 square feet of carpet, 160 pounds of donated coffee and 20 boxes, each holding 5,000 brochures explaining that anybody who hasn’t had shots for Hepatitis B shouldn’t go near sewage.

“If this had just been water it would have been different, but that’s raw sewage and we don’t play around with that,” Cameron said.

Volunteers were still able to help three Spokane families that were flooded out of their homes because disaster kits were stored on tables in the basement.

Cameron hopes insurance will cover the cost of replacing the carpet.

“If not - well, now it’s time for the community to come to Red Cross’ rescue,” she said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo