Batavia residents steamed over sewer flooding

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct that the sewage Batavia released in to the Fox River during a storm was treated with chlorine, to kill adverse organisms. Also, the statement about treatment was incorrectly attributed to a city employee. He did not say anything about the treatment status.The city did treat it with chlorine, to kill adverse organisms. Also, the statement about treatment was incorrectly attributed to a city employee. He did not say that.

Two residents of a southwestern Batavia neighborhood are up in arms that combined sanitary and stormwater sewage lines still exist there, seven years after a consultant recommended separating them.

Both residents' homes took on water in Monday's downpour.

"I had water coming up through the toilet and the sump (pit). That's pretty messed up. That needs to be fixed," said James Gorski, of the 700 block of Blaine Street. "I would suggest that anyone on the 700 block get a tax rebate from the city of Batavia for the last 30 years, because it has not been fixed. Or maybe we should just fire everyone and get some new people in."

Neighbor Rudy Dubis said he had 4 inches of water in his basement for the fourth time in the last 10 years. "I'm just asking you or begging you to do something about this problem," he said.

Homes throughout Batavia had flooded basements, even if they lived in areas with separate stormwater sewers. Sanitary sewers were infiltrated with rainwater.

The city's sewage-treatment plant went on bypass mode Monday night, public works superintendent Gary Holm told aldermen. The sewage was treated with chlorine to kill organisms before release in to the Fox River. The city's treatment plant has added capacity to hold back a "surge" of sewage for later treatment, but Monday's storm filled even that.

Holm also said older neighborhoods without detention or retention basins were affected by overland water flow.

In 2008, a consultant studying the sanitary-sewer system noted there were three areas in town that had combined sewers and estimated that it would cost $8 million to $9 million to separate them. Doing so was recommended not just for avoiding basement flooding but also to reduce the amount of stormwater being unnecessarily treated at the sewage treatment plant.

"Obviously four times in the last 10 years is not acceptable," Alderman Dave Brown said.

The committee is in the midst of discussions of whether to create a stormwater utility and whether to dedicate money to such a facility. The money could come from that already collected in property taxes, an increase in property taxes, or by charging a separate monthly fee via utility bills.

A consultant's report presented to the council in May suggested the city should be spending at least another $1 million a year on repairs and improvements to its stormwater drainage system. That would be about three times as much as it spends now.