Plugged pipes cause stores to flood

SANDPOINT — A grease-plugged city sewer pipe resulted in flooding at several downtown businesses over the weekend.

The pipe, which runs underneath First Avenue, plugged Saturday preventing the flow of wastewater to the city sewer plant, city officials said.

As water and effluent built up in the underground system, it eventually boiled up through drains, causing as much as $40,000 damage at Zero Point, a First Avenue gift store, and less costly damage in the basements of other retailers.

“We watched it come pouring in,” Kathy Friedmann, co-owner of Zero Point said. “We didn’t know how to stop it.”

An employee notified Friedmann and husband, William, of the problem at approximately 10 a.m., she said, and the couple rushed to the store.

The pungent gray water boiled up through drains in the store’s bathrooms, utility and storage room as the owners frantically worked to remove inventory from a flooding room.

The gray water climbed four to six inches as the couple waded barefoot through the mixture with their pant legs rolled up.

The Friedmanns tried in vain to call the city, they said, but could not get through. Instead, they called a plumber who discovered the plugged main after lifting the manhole cover on First Street.

Maintenance workers attended to the problem by 3 p.m., the Friedmanns said, but by then chairs, crystal bowls and other glass, ceramic and crystal items had already been damaged. 

Kody Van Dyk, city public works director, said grease from downtown restaurants built up in the system and caused the 8-inch sewer line to plug.

“It was blockage of grease in the line, and it’s likely the grease comes from restaurants,” Van Dyk said. “That causes backups in the sewer system.”

The downtown system is sometimes overloaded with water from rooftops of older buildings, Van Dyk said. Newer buildings and refurbished buildings are required to divert stormwater to a separate system, but the rain and runoff from the roofs of vintage downtown structures drains into the sewage system.

“It enters the sewer system and tends to overload it, so if there is blockage, it tends to load up,” he said.

The city periodically cleans the line, he said.

“The city has equipment to clear lines and we do that on a regular basis,” he said. “What we think happens during these heavy rain events, the grease that adheres to walls comes off and causes blockages. We’re not too sure how that happens.”

Sandy Rose, a 14-year employee at Finan McDonald Clothing Company, said the basement periodically floods during intense runoff, but this time it was different.

“The street was dry,” Rose said.

In the basement of the downtown business that smelled of moldy dampness, she pointed to a water mark approximately three inches from the concrete floor.

Clothing racks, steel and wooden, boxes and business signs were damaged by water that came up through a large drain in the floor and eventually receded.

“As to what’s been damaged, I don’t know,” Rose said.

The water also flooded the basement at Zany Zebra, a women’s apparel store a few doors north of Finan McDonald.

“Anything we had stored down there either got wet, or is damp and smelly,” store owner Ranel Hanson said. “I had fixtures standing in water.

She had not assessed the damage by early Monday.

Damage to inventory at Zero Point is estimated between $10,000 and $15,000, the Friedmanns said.

The store was closed Monday as contractors and a clean-up crew removed floor covering and dried lower-level rooms. Cleaning up will cost about $4,500, they said. Repairing damaged sheet rock, insulation, doors and floors will cost another $20,000.

They said they were told by a city employee that the pipe plugged because it had not been regularly cleaned.

Van Dyk refuted the claim.

“I don’t think that’s true,” he said. “We do it on a regular basis.”

The city is examining logs in an effort to find when the line was last cleaned, he said.

Retailers with damaged inventory or stored items may file a claim with the city, which will conduct a review to determine liability, he said.

The Friedmanns learned Monday that their insurance company will not pay for the damage and plan to file a claim with the city.

“Our insurance company is not going to pay for anything,” Friedmann said. “They have an exclusion for sewer backups.”

The city reported another blockage in a downtown sewer line Monday. Crews worked to clear the plug.