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Blockages causing sewer backups

Repairs will be made to the Sulphur Mountain sanitary line following two significant sewage backups this year – but Town of Banff officials say the blockages were caused by grease, rags and disposable wipes.

Repairs will be made to the Sulphur Mountain sanitary line following two significant sewage backups this year – but Town of Banff officials say the blockages were caused by grease, rags and disposable wipes.

Officials say they plan to fix a few cracks and fractures on the line, but say they will also launch a town-wide campaign to educate residents and businesses on the do’s and don’ts of what goes into the sanitary system.

In the case of the sewage backups on Sulphur Mountain in April and August, municipal officials say they were caused by buildups of grease and a large amount of rags and disposable wipes blocking the line.

“We’re encouraging people not to treat their toilet like a garbage can. If it didn’t come out of your body, don’t put it in the toilet,” said Paul Godfrey, the Town of Banff’s operations manager.

“Grease is also a huge problem. It’s like cholesterol in your body and starts to plug the line.”

A blocked pipe on the main sewage line connecting the Rimrock Resort Hotel, Banff Gondola and Parks Canada’s Upper Hot Springs to the treatment plant forced raw sewage out through a manhole cover in Banff.

The leak was detected Aug. 13 more than a kilometre downslope of the Rimrock Resort Hotel and caused Parks Canada to close a popular trail south of the hotel.

Crews worked for nine hours to unclog the pipe, which was stuck with rags, wipes and other cloth materials, and cleanup of the area continued in the days following.

It was the second sewage leak on the line this year. The last one was in April.

Officials say there was the potential for 200 litres a minute of sewage to spill out, but they don’t know for sure because they don’t know if the discharge lasted for a minute or for an hour.

“When we saw the quantity of rags and wipes and things like that, and the amount of grease that had accumulated, it was quite remarkable,” Godfrey said.

“The sewer system isn’t designed for those kinds of things. These cause considerable damage and expense to everyone.”

The Town of Banff recently put a camera down the Sulphur Mountain sanitary sewer line, which is approximately 40 years old and has a life expectancy of more than double that.

The work, done two weeks ago following the mid-August leak, determined there were some cracks and fractures and evidence of small finger-like tree roots penetrating the pipes.

Godfrey said that was not the reason for the two backups, but plans are to hire a contractor to do the spot repairs work this year, noting there is money within the sanitary budget for contracted services.

“This is something we want to mobilize now,” he said.

The camera is about the size of a loaf of bread and mounted on a Tonka truck-like machine that is sent down the pipes on a cable. It has the ability to tilt, zoom and pan.

Godfrey said crews noticed another near blockage on the Sulphur line when doing the camera work two weeks ago, indicating a third sewage surcharge would have been imminent had it not been detected.

“The camera came up to the blockage and we had to stop and pull the camera out and got the Vactor truck and flushed the blockage out,” he said.

“There was nothing in the pipe that caused the grease or rags to stop there.”

Trevor Long, general manager of the Rimrock Resort Hotel, said he is meeting with the Town of Banff on Thursday (Sept. 6) – after the Outlook’s deadline – but he would be happy to talk following the meeting.

“They sent a camera down the pipes and I just haven’t heard what the results were,” he said.

The Town of Banff is forecasting it will be $27,900 over budget for contracted services in utilities following a project that was identified after the first backup of the Sulphur Mountain line.

The unanticipated costs are related to improving the Rimrock access road to allow large service vehicles to access the water and sewer lines that lead to and from the Sulphur Mountain properties.

Though he would not give an exact cost to taxpayers, Godfrey said cleaning out blocked sewer pipes costs “tens of thousands of dollars”, noting the sucker truck is out for about a week a month.

Godfrey said another problem area is at the corner of Caribou Street and Bear Street.

“That is one place that we go to regularly and flush it. There’s a number of restaurants in the area and there’s lots of grease coagulating in the line,” he said.

“The people at Canada House are the low point when it backs up and they get it. You can get grease into a line and you might be safe, but your downstream neighbour can get the backup.”

As well as a town-wide education program, the Town of Banff has also been reviewing its sewer bylaw that could lead to tougher requirements for on the disposal of grease, particularly for commercial operations.


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