SIOUX CITY -- Due to an overwhelming volume of water, the Sioux City Wastewater Treatment Plant is dumping roughly a million gallons of untreated sewage per day directly into the Missouri River, Sioux City Utilities Director Brad Puetz said Tuesday.
The wastewater plant is operating beyond its capacity amid historic flooding of the Sioux City metro, Puetz said at a press briefing Tuesday. The issues at the wastewater plant should not impact residents, he said. Tom Pingel, the city's utility director in charge of the plant, said Monday that because the overwhelming majority of the water flowing into the plant is floodwater, reducing residential sewer usage would do little to help.
Puetz downplayed the amount of sewage flowing into the river, pointing out that the plant is processing 61 million gallons of water per day right now, about three times what it normally handles.
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"So, direct discharge of a million gallons a day is -- the plant's taking care of it," he said.
Puetz said city crews worked beginning Sunday morning to protect the city's water infrastructure, and those efforts were successful; none of the city's wells were inundated with floodwaters, and the city's tap water remains safe to consume.
"Barring any unforeseen events with further rainfall, we don't anticipate any impacts to the drinking water at all," Puetz said.
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