Agency official: storm pushed village sewer system near capacity but no sanitary sewer overflows occurred

An agency official (S2) told the Board of Trustees that a storm from May 2–5 produced multiple peak‑hour and peak‑day capacity triggers across village wastewater facilities but did not produce sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs).

S2 reported peak‑hour exceedances at the Central pump station — 93.6% on May 2 and 81.9% on May 4 — and at the Riverbend station, which logged 91.7% on May 2 and 93.8% on May 4. Village‑wide peak‑day percentages reached 88.2% on May 2 and climbed into the low‑to‑mid 80s on subsequent days, according to S2.

“We did fill the 4,700,000 gallon attenuation basin on Highway K,” S2 said. S2 described the diversion beginning May 2 at 1:15 p.m. and ending when the basin was full on May 4 at 9:45 a.m. The official provided rough filling rates, saying the average was about 106,000 gallons per hour and that peak observations suggested rates as high as 120,000–140,000 gallons per hour.

“So long story short, that basin came in handy. It it saved us from going over into the 90, 90% range until, unfortunately, it was full,” S2 said. S2 later added, “We did not at all eclipse the 100% mark, so I'm actually pretty happy with that.”

S2 said the village did not record any sanitary sewer overflows to the lake and that contractual pumping arrangements with the city of Racine provided additional capacity. The official warned residents to expect a notice from the wastewater authority in about four to six weeks regarding post‑storm reporting and follow‑up.

The board was told the basin had been drained by midnight and is ready for further use. Staff will continue to monitor system performance and return to the board if additional operational or policy steps are recommended.