A huge void below a busted sewer line 9 feet beneath Main Street lurks in front of the Marion County Courthouse. It appears to be fed by a natural spring and was unknown until a sewer camera found it this week.
City officials believe it’s a cause of longstanding flooding problems they’ve been investigating at Care at Residence Services.
The city has spent about $75,000 so far trying to find the problem while pulling out truckloads of gravel from the line. It expects to spend at least $100,000 more to make repairs.
The city has orange cones blocking off the spot where the hole is as it prepares to do the fix, which could take until June to be finished. The job also includes a busted sewer line beneath the sidewalk in front of the Marion County Development Partnership.
Employees from Care at Residence Services, a home health agency at 403 South Main St., have been attending every board meeting for months to ask the mayor and aldermen about the problems, and Water Department Supervisor Michael McDaniel said during Tuesday’s meeting that crews finally found the problem on Monday while using a camera to go through the line.
Mamie Brown, an employee of the company, questioned city officials about the effects of the sewage coming up in streets and businesses. She said all of the employees are sick now and are looking to start putting calls into the city to pay their doctor bills.
“With all the sewage coming out of these manholes and stuff, shouldn’t the city be coming out and spraying something to stop the germs from spreading?” she said.
McDaniel said that 90 percent of what comes up is rainwater and that they spray germicide when they “jet” a line. But he said they would have to spray citywide during every flash flood to do what Brown requested. He said if they ever see it overflowing and make a request, they will be glad to spray.
McDaniel’s company, MD Electric, contracts with the city to run the water department.
The discussion was part of a long debate during Tuesday’s meeting about how to fix the problem. The board voted unanimously to get bids to do the work. McDaniel will develop bid specifications in conjunction with the city engineer.
Alderman Edward Hough estimated it will be June before the repairs are completed.
McDaniel said the camera showed a large void underneath the road where water is flowing rapidly into a hole in a 21-inch sewer line. He said they believe it’s being fed by a spring head and is gushing 30 gallons to 40 gallons per minute into the line.
Mayor Justin McKenzie said the sewer line is 65-plus years old.
“Age is taking its toll on our little town, and like Michael was saying, it sits in a bowl as it is,” McKenzie said.
The mayor said the first step will be to seal the pipe, second repair the void and third figure out where the water is coming from. If it is a spring head, they will probably put in some type of French drain and run the water to a storm drain.
The water flowing into the sewer line has caused the line to frequently back up south of the courthouse when it rains and allowed debris inside the line that has further restricted the flow.
McDaniel said they’ve already pulled over 100 yards of gravel from the line.
Nearby at the MCDP office, an 8-inch sewer line is busted underneath the sidewalk. Both repairs will require tearing up the existing surfaces.
The city is delaying another planned project on Central Avenue while it sees how much this will cost.
Sharon James, owner of Care at Residence Services, asked for clarification of whether this was what had been causing her problems, saying officials initially pointed repeatedly to grease in the line as the probable cause. She said she’s been complaining about it for more than a year.
McKenzie and McDaniel said it was a combination of grease and debris in the line along with the busted line and the void in front of the courthouse. They said it will make a difference for her business once fixed.
“Unless there’s a flash flood, I don’t think you’ll ever have a problem again,” McDaniel said.
Pictured Above: Crews from B Clean LLC of Laurel were on Main Street Thursday afternoon checking out a collapsed sewer line using a camera that looks underneath the road. | Photo by Charlie Smith
