Kam Lake sewage cleanup won't be finished until spring

Though a majority of the sewage has been hauled away, the area surrounding a ruptured sewage pipe on Kam Lake Road will not be fully clean until the spring.

Dennis Kefalas, the city's director of Public Works and Engineering, said the city needs to wait until after the spring thaw to spread lime over the area, which increases pH levels in the ground and helps breakdown bacteria.

If lime is spread in the drainage ditch before the spring freshet, said Kefalas, it could run into the water, “which is not good.”

One member of the public showed up to an open meeting about the sewage spill on Tuesday night at city hall.

Kam Lake MLA Kieron Testart was present, and said his constituents are satisfied with the city's clean up efforts so far.

Kefalas said he would be holding another meeting in Kam Lake with the affected property owners in the coming days.

Between 1,000 and 2,000 cubic meters of liquid waste – nearly enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool – spilled onto Kam Lake Road and out to the lake on Jan. 15 after a pipe broke near Ron's Auto.

The spill was first noticed around 8:30 a.m. by snow removal crews working in the area. The rupture was patched by 11 p.m. that night and the road was reopened an hour and a half later.

A more permanent repair job will be done this summer.

The pipe gave out at a bending point as a result of ground movement and “constant water hammering over the years,” said Kefalas.

He explained that in a pipe full of fluids, force tends to build up around any 90-degree bend. Stress on the pipe, combined with shifting ground, caused the pipe to pull apart and release the sewage.

The sewage pipe is between 20 and 30 years old, but Kefalas said it's still in “very, very good shape.”

Kefalas said concrete thrust blocks will be installed to reinforce the pipe at areas where it bends.

Nearby businesses were not affected by the spill.

More cleaning remains to be done on Kam Lake itself.

The city needs to wait until the lake ice is thick enough to hold heavy equipment before it makes a second attempt at scraping sewage off its surface.

On Jan. 24, an excavator brought out to clean up effluent that had spilled onto the lake went through the ice and into about five feet of water. No injuries were reported.

The city does not believe any sewage or machinery fuel got into the water when the ice broke.

Crews will drill to check the thickness the ice toward the end of February. The city hopes work on the lake can begin in the first week of March.

It's unclear at this time how much the spill will cost the city.

“We've taken this very seriously,” said Kefalas.
“The silver lining in this whole affair is that it's wintertime and there's ice on the lake, which created a natural barrier for the lake from being contaminated from raw sewage.”