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Wrightsville Beach
Friday, March 29, 2024

Residents’ sump pumps might have contributed to sewer overflows

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During recent heavy rains, water flowing into Wrightsville Beach’s sewer system caused several manholes to overflow, spilling 4,050 gallons of diluted sewage onto the ground. It’s normal for some storm water to seep into the sewer lines during heavy rains, public works director Mike Vukelich said, but the volume of water entering the system makes him suspect it was not just seeping in, but being illegally pumped in.

The island’s older homes are built on the ground rather than elevated and are therefore more susceptible to flooding. Vukelich wonders if residents living in such homes pump floodwater into the town’s sewer system, not realizing it is against the law.

“These houses have living spaces on the ground floor,” Vukelich said. “They’re no longer allowed, for this reason. Some of them have been here for 30, 40 or 50 years. If you’ve got problems, you’re going to try to correct them.”

On Oct. 8, more than 48 hours after the last rainfall, public works was still pumping sewage off the island at three times the normal flow rate, Vukelich said. To mitigate the overflows directly after the storm, town employees attached a bypass pump to the lift station on Iula Street, which was heavily taxed due to serving such a large, low-elevation area at the south end of the island.

Vukelich said it was unusual the lift station continued to need the bypass pump even several days after the storm.

“We’ll pump that one down several inches and it looks like we’re getting ahead, and then you go somewhere else, and when you come back it’s come back up again,” Vukelich said. “That’s what got us starting to think there’s water being pumped into the system.”

He identified one house on South Lumina Avenue he suspected was using a sump pump. He said his employees put a camera in the sewer line and detected what he described as a “substantial water flow coming out of the house” into the sewer system, even though the homeowner isn’t currently living there.

The town contacted the house’s caretaker, who said there is no sump pump. Even so, Vukelich said the town plans to keep an eye out for other residents that might be pumping water into the sewer lines.

“I suspect there are others, because neighbors talk,” he said.

Homeowners caught pumping water into the sewer system could get a citation, but Vukelich said his main concern is getting the residents to disconnect their pumps from the system to lessen the chances another overflow of this magnitude happens.

Vukelich said in his 15 years with the public works department he has never had to deal with any weather event like this, so he hopes it is a while before the sewage system is tested this heavily again.

“The rain event coincided with super high tides, so that compounded the situation,” he said. “This is the worst I’ve seen it. Usually we’re able to recover in a few days, but it will be a week we’ve been battling this.”

He was pleased, however, that his department was able to keep the sewage system working during such a catastrophic weather event.

“We’re able to operate it — albeit under emergency measures — but we’re able to keep it going,” he said.

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