Published: November 20, 2008 09:54 am      

City points finger at homeowner

The city of McAlester has checked the site where sewage is flowing into a canal adjacent to Chadick Park, but contends it’s a problem with a private residential line.

City Utilities Director David Medley said the city workers went to the residence of Kathryn Thetford near Fifth Street and Delaware Avenue on Wednesday and put some green florescent dye into the line from inside her house.

“The dye came out in the canal,” Medley said.

“That indicates to us that her sanitary sewer line has failed or is leaking,” he said.

Thetford had contacted the News-Capital on Tuesday, saying the problem with sewage flowing into the canal near her home had been ongoing for a long period of time.

She said she’d already contacted the city of McAlester a number of times and the State Department of Environmental Quality at least twice — most recently this week.

DEQ spokesperson Skyler McElhaney confirmed that the agency had received a complaint from Thetford this week.

“We got a complaint on Monday and we did get out and look at it,” McElhaney said.

Although the DEQ representative smelled a strong odor, she couldn’t locate where it was coming from and she contacted city officials about the problem McElhaney said.

Thetford said on Tuesday the city would occasionally send a crew to the manhole at Fifth Street and Delaware, which would either pump or flush the lines or drain, resulting in some temporary relief — but the sewage and odor would always return in a few days.

Medley said late Wednesday afternoon that the city is calling a locator to pinpoint all the underground utilities in the area.

“They will come and locate the utilities so her plumber can locate our storm drain,” Medley said.

“Our line is flowing good,” he said.

If the problem is caused by a leak in a residential sewer line as opposed to the city’s, why is there a continuous flow out of the storm drain, even during dry weather?

“The storm drain also has groundwater leaking into it,” Medley said. He said the city doesn’t know if there are other residential leaks in the area.

Why would the sewage seepage problem clear up for a few days, according to Thetford, after the city pumped or flushed the city lines from the manhole at Fifth Street and Delaware Avenue if the problem is caused by a residential leak on her property?

“That’s a good question,” Medley said. “It doesn’t make sense.”

Medley said Thetford told him she understood the situation and she will get a plumber to check out her line.

Contact James Beaty at jbeaty@mcalesternews.com.