Flood Waters Knock Out North Springfield Sewer Main

By Richard Girard
EAGLE TIMES PUBLISHER
SPRINGFIELD, VT — A sewer line located on Giddings Street in North Springfield was destroyed by the angry flood waters of the Black River on Tuesday.

Spanning the gap over the top of the stream, the iron ductile pipe served a small number of homes in the neighborhood, impacting about 20 people, said Waste Water Superintendent Nate Fraser.

“During the height of the storm, whole trees and a snowmobile bridge were witnessed raging downstream into the path of the local bridge where our sewer line crossed. I can only speculate that a combination of these circumstances were the cause of the breakage,” he said in response to an inquiry made by the Eagle Times.

Fraser said he checked the area at one point during the evening, but residents had been evacuated and it clearly wasn’t safe to be there. But at 7 a.m., before the start of his shift the next morning, Fraser discovered the iron pipe was gone

“I immediately reached out to my supervisor, Jeff Strong, Dan Gurney with Gurney Brothers Construction and EJP for replacement pipe and materials. Gurneys mobilized a crew and exposed both ends of the sewer main with their excavator. EJP sent a technician from Concord, NH, and was on site with the replacement sections of pipe at 12:45 [p.m.] and the final stages of replacement were underway. We made our final connection around 5 in the afternoon,” Fraser recounted.

Fraser said he felt good about the roughly ten hours it took to repair the break “considering the fact we were still working over moving water and spanning a gap of forty feet with sewer line and a 1,200 pound steel beam for support.”

Fraser said he doesn’t yet have the final repair cost. He estimated that fewer than 2,000 gallons of effluent spilled into the flood waters, based on water usage calculations for the households served by the pipe. The number is likely high, he said, given his knowledge of the area and the circumstances. He doesn’t expect the spill will necessitate any special cleanup.

“Springfield residents and our infrastructure faired very well and I feel very fortunate as I see other communities and folks I know in our field struggle to pick up the pieces,” he said.