Ogdensburg's Waste Water Treatment Plant.

BY JIMMY LAWTONNorth Country This Week

OGDENSBURG -- Ogdensburg City Council voted to bolster a program that will help residents dealing with sewage backing up into their basement.

The decision comes on the heels of a special meeting in which the city heard from engineers who said the basement flooding and sewage backups are due largely to the fact that the city's storm and sewer systems are not separated.

That means when the city has major rain events the system becomes overwhelmed causing backups.

The city created a program that helps residents pay for backflow valves and installations years ago. However, following recent complaints from residents the city has decided to expand the program.

The program will now provide $500 reimbursements to residents who install the valves, previously the city provided $250. To fund the program the city moved $25,000 into the program making adjustments to the sewer budget.

City Manager Fonda Chronis said the city was working to balance its limited finances and the needs of city residents.

In June several members of the public raised concerns about the problem with city resident Ann Loffler explaining that her basement was filled with untreated raw sewage following a rain event. Others discussed the expenses they had incurred due to costly cleanups.

A presentation made by engineers and city officials at a special meeting explained that the problem would not be an easy or fast one to address, but rather would take time and investment.

Engineers from Development Authority of the North Country and Environmental Design & Research (EDR), Syracuse said separating the sewer and stormwater systems is the long term solution.

DANC Chief Operating Officer Carrie Tuttle said on average the city’s plant treats 3 million gallons a day and has a maximum capacity of 6.5 million gallons. But major flooding events like the one last month which led to sewage backing up into residential basements is too much for the facility to handle.

“The system is completely overwhelmed,” she said.  “There’s no place for that flow to go, and it's finding the path of least resistance.”

She said that in some cases that means people’s basements.

The long term solution would involve a multimillion dollar capital project that would separate the systems. That solution would likely not only solve the basement backups, but would also reduce long term costs for the city. That’s because currently the city is treating large amounts of stormwater that doesn’t need to be treated.

While such an investment would involve engineering, design, grants and money the city simply doesn’t have, some short-term ideas were also floated at the meeting.

One of the short-term fixes discussed was the backflow valve program.

The other short term factor would center on code enforcement and ensuring businesses and residents are properly tied into the city’s sewer system.

On Monday council also discussed the need to ensure sump pumps aren't tied into the sewer system. Council noted that they believed that was already part of the city code.

It's unclear at this time if such enforcement will come with fines or warnings, but the city said that in order to minimize additional problems related to the sewage back ups, proper enforcement would be necessary.

Residents are encouraged to watch the presentation which can be viewed here and look at the materials put together by staff which can be found here.