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Smelly problems still plague wastewater collection system EAST GULL LAKE Staff Writer EAST GULL LAKE - An unlucky East Gull Lake homeowner had a nasty experience with the city's new wastewater system after raw sewage backed up into the home Feb. 24 through the pipes, creating a foul mess and destroying the white carpeting.
This was the latest in a series of problems that continue to plague the city of East Gull Lake's $2.3 million wastewater collection system project.
The city paid to have the home professionally cleaned and the carpets replaced, but now wastewater committee members are left wondering how structurally sound the system is after learning the pipes may have been overpressurized during testing last year.
The wastewater committee met Monday to discuss the situation and are now trying to set up another meeting between the city's contractor, Aspen Construction, and its engineering firm, Howard R. Green Co., and their attorneys about the collection system.
The city council in January denied a $251,000 payment - previously withheld since July - to its contractor as a result of previous sewage leaks, including a leak that caused an estimated 1,000 gallons of raw sewage to seep from a pipe buried nine feet below the ground and out onto Birch Island Road near Gull Lake. This despite assurances by the company and the city's engineering firm that the city passed all of its pressure tests in a letter from H.R. Green Co. to the city Oct. 31, 2005.
The city demanded that the collection system be retested, which Aspen Construction has been doing during the past five weeks. While the project specifications call for the system to be pressure tested at 150 pounds per square inch, the system was retested and passed at 75 to 110 psi. Normal sewage flows through the pipes at about 50 psi.
City Attorney Gordon Raisanen questioned whether the system, which was previously tested at 150 psi last year, has been compromised because a component of the system, a stainless steel union used on the sewage tanks, couldn't be pressure rated past 125 psi. He asked whether the system has been damaged as a result of exposure to the higher pressure.
Jon Fank, project manager for Aspen Construction who has been retesting the system since Feb. 1, told the committee that the system has integrity. He said there are only two laterals, or connections to two homes, that haven't passed the pressure testing and the problem with these connections won't be known until the ground thaws.
Raisanen told the committee that Aspen's attorney has informed him that Aspen Construction will be seeking non-binding mediation services to resolve the issues between the contractor and the city so Aspen can be paid.
The entire project was temporarily shut down by the city council for 10 days in June 2005 because of concerns about the quality of work and multiple problems, including improper turf and pavement restoration, lack of compaction testing and the lack of providing the 600-pound concrete ballast to anchor all the grinder station tanks.
The system was mostly complete by last November but final completion for the project is slated for March.
JODIE TWEED can be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.
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