Riverside lift station overflows, no sewage in river

WWTP employee Jonathan Chandler completed the clean up at the Riverside lift station after an overflow early Tuesday.

When you get more than two inches of rain in 24 hours, that’s a lot of water.

“It’s simply more than we can process,” said Thomas Thompson, Waste Water Treatment Plant Supervisor for the Village of Manchester.

Due to the excessive rainfall (a total of about 2.1 inches) between May 18 and 19, approximately 1,00 gallons of sewage overflowed the hatch at the village’s main lift station located at 220 Riverside Drive.

“The overflow was contained on land and did not reach the River Raisin,” Thompson explained in a press release. “The Village of Manchester is working toward the elimination of such overflows.”

The Manchester Village Council has been discussing the need for improvements in the water and sewer treatment systems for several months. “If we can make those improvements, we can handle this kind of a situation, and we won’t have any overages in the future,” Thompson added. “This happens every few years when there is a large rainfall. Fortunately, the water flowed into the grassy area surrounding the lift station and the adjacent marsh; nothing appears to have gone into the river.”

Public notification has been given and the Michigan EGLE and Washtenaw County Health Department have both received details of the overflow, and a report was filed online at the MI-Waters reporting site.

On a normal day, the Riverside lift station, Manchester’s main transfer station for sewage, handles about 300-400,000 gallons of water. In the 24 hour period prior to the overflow, more than 1.1 million gallons flowed through the station, at least triple its normal capacity.

WWTP employee Jon Chandler was at the lift station completing cleanup on Tuesday afternoon.

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by Marsha Chartrand

Marsha Johnson Chartrand, a founder, writer, and copy editor with the Manchester Mirror, is a 50-year resident of Manchester. She has a long history of volunteer and community involvement.