ELKINS — City officials say new underground pipes in South Elkins have prevented storm water from being a problem in that area this summer.

The installation of new pipes, which was completed last year, was Phase 2 of an ongoing project to separate sewer and storm-water lines in that area of town.

Last year at this time, South Elkins had no storm-water lines which allow water from heavy storms to drain into the river. Like most of Elkins, that area of the city had to depend on combined sewer and storm /water lines to take care of excess water that was flowing from storm drains and residential downspouts.

As a result of sewer and storm/water lines being combined, an abundance of untreated wastewater spilled into the river during heavy rains.

“When I started working at the treatment plant about 12 years ago, heavy rain events could result in as much as 8-10 million gallons leaving the plant after treatment,” Whitney Hymes, chief operator of the Elkins wastewater system, said. “The effluent we were releasing still met environmental standards, but it definitely wasn’t as clear and clean as it could have been.”

Hymes said the plant is designed to treat and release no more than 4.99 million gallons of outflow, or effluent, per day. She said since the completion of the work last fall, the highest spike in system volume caused by a large rain event was only 5.99 millions in a single day.

“We still have work to do to eliminate overflows entirely, which is the goal the DEP (West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection) has set for us,” Hymes said. “We are making good progress toward that goal.”

Even with things running much smoother in the South Elkins area part of town now, Hymes said property owners can still help reduce the volume of storm water.

“There are still a lot of houses in Elkins with gutter downspouts connected directly to the sewer lines,” Hymes said. “We really need to get those tied to the storm water lines instead. If anyone wants more information, I encourage them to get in touch with me.”

Although there is no official start date scheduled, Hymes said her team is currently working with engineers to plan a third phase of the sewer/storm-water separation project.

For additional information, call the Wastewater Treatment Plant at 304-636-2058, or email Hymes at whymes@cityofelkinswv.com.

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