Sewage back-up forces ambulance company to operate from motel

By James Beaty
Senior Editor

November 06, 2008 11:06 am

— Joe Williams of Para Med says that since the city can’t seem to get a clogged sewer line repaired and raw sewage has spilled over into the Para Med office building, the ambulance service is now operating at a different location.
“I have to go somewhere,” Williams said late Wednesday afternoon.
“The ambulance crews are being stationed at the Highway Inn,” he said. “We’ll dispatch them via radio or cell phone.”
“We moved our front office operation to our Eufaula office,” Williams said.
Williams, who is the supervisor at Para Med, said untreated sewer with human waste has overflowed the toilets, even though the workers there have not used the facilities or flushed a toilet for days because of the ongoing problem.
“It just comes up,” Williams said of the raw sewage which has spilled over onto carpet and tiles at the Para Med building at 403 S. Main St.
He believes the problem stems from the city’s main sewer line, which runs next to the building.
City crews have been working on the problem this week, but hadn’t had much success as of late Wednesday afternoon.
Also on Wednesday, city of McAlester Safety Compliance Officer Willie Faries stopped by to assess the damage at Para Med.
“I’m taking pictures,” Faries said. “I’ll get all the information and write a report,” he said, saying the matter will likely be turned over to the insurance company the city uses.
“I called them because my carpet and tiles on the floor have been flood-damaged,” Williams said. “I’ve got human waste deposits on my carpet.”
Meanwhile, a city crew worked outside in the canal which is adjacent to the Para Med building.
“We have an 18-inch sanitary sewer line that has gravel and silt in it,” said City Utilities Director Dave Medley. “It looks like the line has collapsed.”
The problem has been made more difficult because the sewer line runs under the canal. City work crews using a back-hoe dug into the canal and opened the sewer line at one point to try and flush it out.
“We opened the line in the canal because that’s the only place we could find to get to it,” Medley said.
“We tried flushing it out,” using high-pressure water equipment, Medley said. “Normally, you can take the flush truck and clear the blockage.”
However, that hasn’t worked on clearing the line “because it’s all filled up with debris,” Medley said.
Workers have not been able to locate the sewer line where it comes from Para Med to the main sewer line, Medley said.
He said the city started working on the problem on Monday and is continuing to try and get the lines opened.
“We’re doing everything we can to identify the problems,” Medley said.
For Williams and Par Med though, the problems can’t be solved soon enough.
“There is no answer in what to try to do to rectify the situation,” Williams said
Contact James Beaty at jbeaty@mcalesternews.com.