Sean C. Morgan
Hard rain caused some minor flooding in the Sweet Home area Saturday before turning to snow and leaving one to two inches around town.
A little snow remained Monday along some roadways and in some yards.
The area had some localized flooding, Police Chief Bob Burford said. The most significant flooding was at the east end of Tamarack Street around Ulex Street. A closed flood gate on an old mill pond backed water up into the street some 14 to 18 inches deep, and water edged up to the garages of three homes there.
“It rained a lot,” City Manager Craig Martin said. “The ditches filled up and then there were some minor flood issues.”
He was unaware of any flood damage, though the waters did get close to residences in a couple of areas.
The city would like to know about any damage caused by floods, Martin said. That information can be used to access federal emergency money for flood mitigation.
The rain also caused at least one manhole to surcharge. The rain filled up pipes in the Oak Terrace-Long Street area causing a manhole to overflow as it did in a heavy rain event in 1998.
Heavy rains can fill up the sewer system through cross connections and leaky pipes. The process is called inflow and infiltration, a problem that the City of Sweet Home is working on repairing. With all of the extra water in the system, the wastewater treatment plant cannot handle all of the water and must discharge untreated wastewater to the South Santiam River as it did Saturday.
Information about how much untreated wastewater was discharged was unavailable as of Monday.
The city is working under an agreement with the Department of Environmental Quality to eliminate I&I and wastewater bypasses.
When the snow started, Martin was concerned that it would mean even more water, but “I think we got lucky in that it stayed relatively cool,” he said. “It melted kind of slowly.”
Had the snow melted too quickly, it may have contributed to more flooding and I&I, Martin said.
Chief Burford said he was unaware of any weather-related accidents or problems beyond the flooding. Fire Chief Mike Beaver reported no problems related to the weather.