A lot of water ran through the large holding tanks at the Grand Marais Public Utilities Commission wastewater plant during the big rainstorm on June 20. The plant usually deals with 300 gallons a minute, but that day the plant had to deal with 2,000 gallons a minute. There was no damage to the plant.
The big storm on June 20 caused no electrical outages for the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), but a lot of water was running through the sewer plant. Water/Wastewater Superintendent Tom Nelson told the PUC that afternoon that they would be dealing with high water for a week and would have to filter all the sediment out of their fresh water supply from Lake Superior.
The sewer plant usually deals with 300 gallons a minute, Nelson said, but that day they were dealing with 2,000 gallons a minute. The city had received 2½ inches of rain between 8 p.m. the night before and 8 a.m. that morning, he said.
Nelson distributed portions of a Reader’s Digest online article entitled 10 Jobs Americans Can’t Live Without. Two of those jobs represent the work of the Grand Marais Public Utilities Department: electrical power line repairers (105,540 nationwide) and water/wastewater treatment plant and system operators (108,300 nationwide).
The other jobs are registered nurses, firefighters, railroad conductors and yardmasters, telecommunications equipment installers and repairers, air traffic controllers, nuclear power reactor operators, police and sheriff ’s patrol officers, and correctional officers and jailers.
Upon the recommendation of United Services Group, their consulting firm, the PUC board went with the lower of two bids for an upgrade to its electrical plant. Farabee Mechanical will be paid $235,000 to bring the plant into compliance with Environmental Protection Agency emission regulations.
Leave a Reply